Growing up I didn’t venture to the National Lampoon movies much but my wife and I have carried on her family tradition of watching Christmas Vacation every Thanksgiving and it’s one I’ve grown to look forward to each year.
Christmas Vacation is the third installment in the Vacation series and is based on Hughe’s short story “Christmas ‘59”. We’re once again with the Griswold family, this time spending their Christmas vacation at home with their relatives.
Chevy Chase is back as Clark Griswold. He’s a hard-working, husband, and father that is keen to keep on keeping with traditions and providing a great family Christmas. We start this movie off with the family, well the parents at least, singing Christmas toons as they are driving to the wild to find a real Christmas tree. This is a great start to showcase Clark’s consistency with grand ideas but lack of togetherness as when the family finds the “perfect” Christmas tree they realize they did not bring a single tool.
Ellen, Clark’s wife played by Beverly D’Angelo (in all of the Vacation movies) and the kids are always there on point to bear with Clark’s over-enthusiasm throughout the movie. I find the casting in this installment to be quite enjoyable. Johnny Galecki plays their son Rusty and Juliette Lewis plays their daughter Audrey. This is actually the only film where the siblings are not the same age & it adds to the great chemistry between all the members of the family.
Let’s not dismiss the neighbors as well, Todd and Margo Chester, played by Nicholas Guest and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The one-liners they deliver throughout the chaos they endure from Clark’s mishaps are perfect & get quoted throughout the year.
Among the visiting family members, we have John Randolph and Diane Ladd playing Clark Griswold Sr. And Nora Griswold. We also have E.G. Marshall and Doris Robert as Art and Frances Smith, Ellen’s parents. These four characters bring their own set of comedy which is utilized quite well when they get their screen time.
Randy Quaid, as cousin Eddie, delivers one of the best performances though. Quaid delivers many wacky mannerisms throughout that really steal the spotlight from Chase. Cousin Eddie, his wife Catherine (Miriam Flynn), and their kids Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen) show up during the Christmas Lights celebration with no announcement or previous communication that they would be there. Eddie is clearly there to mooch off the Griswold family as much as he can, but they’re still family and Clark tries to help by offering to get Christmas presents for Rocky and Ruby Sue.
Once we hit Clark’s breaking point things really get wild. He’s patiently been waiting for his bonus check to cover the cost of a swimming pool he’s surprising the family with as his Christmas gift. But once the letter arrives it’s the furthest thing from a bonus. Clark even says he hopes his boss, Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray), would be delivered to his house so he could insult him in person. Eddie takes this request quite literally
and kidnaps Frank which ends up with a SWAT team breaking into the Griswold house.
Through all of these wild events and the many lines that we quote throughout the year, the movie does end on a heartfelt note. John Hughes had such a way with his scripts and this one hits all the notes.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving this year and I can’t wait to watch this one again after next year’s Thanksgiving meal.
Rating: 4/5
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