National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) is the third in the National Lampoon vacation series of movies. It stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Griswold, Johnny Galecki as Rusty Griswold and a young Juliette Lewis as Audrey Griswold.
Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn reprise their roles as, respectively, "Cousin Eddie" and "Cousin Catherine," from the first National Lampoon's Vacation film. Other supporting roles are played by Brian Doyle-Murray (who also appeared in the original Vacation film, although in a different and much smaller role), William Hickey, Doris Roberts, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sam McMurray, Mae Questel and Cody Burger.
As head of his family, Clark W. Griswold attempts to follow American family Christmas traditions with elaborate Christmas lights and decorations on the exterior of the family home. His comedic attempt at a Grand Illumination for the family reunion is one of the high points of the story. The film has become an annual holiday favorite in many families.
Reviews on the film have been mixed. Some fans and critics felt that this was one of the better movies in the Vacation series. Other critics such as Roger Ebert have pointed out a number of flaws in the film that kept them from giving it a higher rating.
Plot summary
The movie begins with Clark taking his family on the search for a perfect Christmas tree. After nearly getting into several traffic accidents, and walking in the woods for a long time, Clark finally finds the perfect tree. His son asks if Clark brought his saw along, at that moment Clark remembers that he forgot the saw. Clark somehow digs the tree out of the ground, and takes it home. Eventually, after breaking several windows, he gets the tree trimmed down so that it would fit in the living room.
As Christmas approaches, the many members of Clark Griswold's extended family begin arriving to stay with him. This drives him to go set up the lighting on the house with his son Rusty. He covers nearly every inch of the home's exterior and yard with lights. When Ellen finally figures out how to turn the lights on, the lights blind the neighbors, cause the electric meter's dials to start spinning rapidly, and force the local nuclear power plant to bring an extra reactor on line to meet the extra demand.
On Christmas Eve Clark is very anxious as his bonus check from his company has not arrived yet. His uncle burns the tree down. His uncle's cat kills itself chewing on a strand of Christmas lights. Before opening the bonus check envelope he announces to his family that he is getting a pool installed in the back yard in the spring. But it's not a check - it's a membership in the jelly of the month club. By then everyone else are ready to give up and go home, but Clark insists on having the happiest Christmas since Bign Crosby and "Danny Fucking Kaye" tap danced. Clark's good-hearted but not especially intelligent cousin Eddie then kidnaps Clark's boss, and the boss finally sees reason about the Christmas bonuses when even his own wife turns against him on the matter.
Goofs
- After Uncle Lewis causes the explosion in the front lawn, a wire can be briefly be seen lifting Santa's sleigh and reindeer up into the air.
Sequels
This is the only sequel in the Vacation series to have spawned its own sequel: a direct to video 2003 release entitled Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn are the only Vacation regulars to reprise their roles.
Christmas Vacation is preceded in the Vacation series by:
Aside from its direct sequel, Christmas Vacation is followed in the series by:
This film was the last of the series to feature "National Lampoon's" in its title.
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