Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Jackson Booth-Millard National Lampoon's Vacation is the most worthwhile, and European Vacation is alright, but this was the one I most looked forward to watching, because I had seen the poster so many times, a man in a Santa suit being electrocuted by Christmas lights, written by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, Beethoven), directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik (Benny & Joon). Basically Christmas is only a few weeks away, the Griswold family are getting ready for the festive season, with husband/father Clark (Chevy Chase), wife/mother Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), son Rusty "Russ" (Johnny Galecki) and daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis). Clark drives the family into the country to get a large Christmas tree, but they realise they have not brought any tools to cut the tree down, they are forced to uproot one, before driving home with the tree strapped on the car roof. Soon after, Clark's parents: father Clark Sr. (John Randolph) and mother Nora (Diane Ladd), and Ellen's parents: father Art (E.G. Marshall) and mother Francis (Everybody Loves Raymond's Doris Roberts), arrive to spend Christmas. Their bickering quickly begins to annoy the family, but Clark maintains a positive attitude, determined to have a "fun old-fashioned family Christmas." Clark covers the entire exterior of the house with 25,000 fairy lights, he has many slips and falls trying to attach them, they fail to work at first, as they were accidentally wired through the garage's light switch. When the lights finally come on after various bulb checks, and tampering with the plugs, they temporarily cause a power shortage across the city, and they cause chaos for snobby neighbours the Chesters, Todd (Nicholas Guest) and Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). While admiring the lights on the front yard, Clark is shocked to see Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), they arrive unannounced with their children, Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen), and their Rottweiler dog, Snots. Eddie confesses that he and his family are living in their RV, as he is broke and was forced to sell the house, Clark offers to buy gifts for Eddie's children, so they can still enjoy Christmas. Clark begins to wonder he has not received his yearly bonus, which he desperately needs for an advance payment he has made to install a new swimming pool. The family have a disastrous Christmas Eve dinner, then Clark receives an envelope, which was overlooked by a messenger the day before, it is not a bonus check, it is a free year's membership for the Jelly of the Month Club. This causes Clark to snap, he goes into a tirade of abuse about his boss, Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray), and out of anger, requests that he be delivered to the house, so Clark can insult him to his face. Eddie takes this request literally, he drives to Frank's mansion, and kidnaps him, Clark is at first shocked, but he confronts Frank about the cancellation of the employees' Christmas bonuses. Meanwhile, Frank's wife, Helen (Natalia Nogulich), calls the police, and a SWAT team storms the Griswold house, everyone is held at gunpoint, but Frank decides not to press charges, he explains the situation to his wife and the authorities, they scold Frank's for his decision, so he reinstates them (with Clark getting an add-on 20% of his salary). The family head outside, and see what they think is Santa Claus in the sky, Clark tells them it is the Christmas Star, and he finally realises what the holiday means to him. Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) says the light is coming from the sewage treatment plant, he reminds Clark that Eddie has been dumping sewage into a storm drain, Uncle Lewis, before Clark can stop him, Uncle Lewis throws a lit match to the ground, triggering an explosion. Aunt Bethany starts singing "The Star-Spangled Banner", the whole family and the SWAT team join in, gazing at Clark's Santa Claus and reindeer set burning and flying into the distance, everyone then goes inside the house to celebrate, while and Ellen happily share a Christmas kiss. Chase is perhaps a little over-the-top this time as the accident-prone father trying to give his family the best Christmas possible, D'Angelo is alright as the tested wife, Quaid is reasonable as the obnoxious relative, and it's nice to see young Lewis in one of her earliest performances. There is always a preconception that everyone tries, or pretends, to be nice to each other at Christmas, well this movie takes that premise to the extreme, everything you fear could wrong during the festive season will go wrong for the Griswolds, unfortunately the extremity of this stuff is not as well crafted as seen previously, it does make you laugh, but perhaps not enough, overall it is an average seasonal comedy. Okay!

ben hibburd National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is the third instalment into the Vacation series. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo return to reprise their roles of Clark and Ellen Griswold. As-well the children have been recast again, this time Juliette Lewis and Jonny Galecki star as Audrey and rusty. And they're the most memorable of the young actors in these roles.Christmas Vacation sees the Griswold's host Christmas with their dysfunctional extended family that have a knack of causing all sorts of mischief and chaos. Whilst Clark and Ellen act as the glue that holds both families together. This film is definitely a vast improvement over European Vacation. The story and over-all zaniness has been toned down making the film more palatable.One of the biggest issues I had with the film is it recycles many of the jokes that were done in the first two films. There were some jokes that made think seriously they're doing this again, in-particular Clark's dream sequence. A-lot of the jokes didn't hit the mark for me. However all the performances felt earnest and all the characters were likeable especially Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo who were once again the best thing about the film.Over-all Christmas Vacation is a safe film that tones down some of the more raunchier humour of the previous films. However due to the sheer likeability of the Griswolds, Christmas Vacation makes for a charming if at times slightly dull Christmas film.

kz917-1 It's a Griswold family Christmas and everyone and I mean everyone is coming for the festivities! What follows are a series of misadventures from walking in the woods to cut down the family tree and forgetting the saw, to decorating the house in over 32,000 twinkle lights, to a squirrel in the tree, to cat food in the jello salad and a pet cat being wrapped as a present. The Griswolds make your own family not look so bad. Settle in with your egg nog in a moose cup and prepare for belly shaking laughter. This movie takes you there and beyond. Fantastically Funny and worth repeated viewings any time of the year!

Halloween4 I have always been a fan of the 'National Lampoon' movies ever since 1978's classic 'National Lampoon's - Animal House' with the legend that was 'John Belushi'.However, it has to be said that some of the movies are a lot better then others, but even though 'National Lampoon's - Christmas Vacation' only ever gets a 1-Star rating in my TV magazine every year, I have to say that for me it's a guilty pleasure that I consider to be a Classic. Maybe not a classic in terms of the 'National Lampoon's' series, but certainly a classic in terms of classic Christmas movies, as for me, along with 'Home Alone ' ( which is my favourite Christmas movie), 'National Lampoon's - Christmas Vacation' is a movie that is always part of my Christmas tradition.The movie itself has some classic comedy moments, most notably the ones involving a crazy squirrel and a makeshift sled, and you also get to see a very young 'Juliette Lewis' in a supporting role as one of the 'Griswold's' children. This is before she went on to find fame in 'Martin Scorsese' 1991 remake of 'Cape Fear', for which she was Oscar nominated for best actress in a supporting role, which in the end went to 'Jodie Foster' in 'The Silence of the Lambs', but I still feel that say miss Lewis was robbed that year.Anyway, if you want to watch a a Christmas Comedy Classic with plenty of belly laughs, then you can't go far wrong with 'National Lampoon's - Christmas Vacation'.