And now, for another TG tradition.....the viewing of....... NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION: After two films and several trips of hijinks and failure, the Griswalds are staying home for the holidays, as family starts gathering and Clark Griswald is hoping for the best, including a Christmas bonus that will pay for a new pool in the backyard. Unfortunately, as often with the Griswalds, trouble often finds its way to spoil the holiday, from annoying relatives and overblown comic misfires. CHRISTMAS VACATION was the first in the iconic VACATION series that I saw, and really, it’s my personal favorite of the lot (the original VACATION had its funny moments, but the EUROPEAN & VEGAS sequels had me slightly chuckling, VEGAS the least overall). What I really find weird is that, with my other pick on this list, most complained about the overly physical slapstick, whereas with CV, I find myself a little disturbed at times, although the slapstick here is equally funny (example: one moment was actually pretty cartoony in a very vicious way. I’ll just say, Cat fans, stay away). Over the years, these movies brought out the best for Chevy Chase and easily his most iconic role outside FLETCH (which I’ve yet to see). Beverly D’Angelo is also pretty iconic, although over the years, she seems a very basic part. The kids changing over the years got really distracting (although here, Juliette Lewis plays the downy kid a little too well: she pretty much plays that part for life). And I’ll be honest: I’ve never been a fan of Randy Quaid in these movies or in general (although he’s good in Kingpin). Here, he gets pretty annoying quick. The other supporting cast in CV are also very good (actually, having watched this recently for this review after not seeing it in years, I completely forgot Julia-Louis Dreyfuss was in this movie as the neighbor). My overall feeling with CHRISTMAS VACATION is that, to a point, it’s a great family comedy with great slapstick, even when it goes over the top. However, I also felt there were times where they wanted to go back with the raunchy humor from the original films, but it got severed at a certain point (for instance, the whole scene with Clark ogling the saleswoman who’s showing off the lingerie, including her own…I would’ve bought it more in a R-rated fashioned approach, where here, it just felt more a shortchanged moment…but maybe I’m just weird). The entire story also felt very sitcom to me, but largely just because I’d seen that kind of story (the boss not giving out Christmas bonuses; it’s been done to death). While it’s a fun comedy, it’s not John Hughes’ best writing, but of course, one might as well take my opinion with a grain of salt. Its still a good comedy with the Feel-Good quota for the season:
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 01:46:10 +0000
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