National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Starting with a rather snappy Christmassy song "Christmas Vacation" sung by Mavis Staples, that has a great Phil Spector Wall of Sound vide to it, which accompanies a rather amusing animated credit sequence involving an accident-prone Santa Clause, this also has a nice William Hanna and Joseph Barbera feel to it.The story is pretty much the same as most Christmas movies, the family get together and the ensuing carnage and bickering that accompanies any of these festive gatherings,so we're not talking anything along the lines of Charles Dicken's or any other classic novel, anyhow the Muppets have that pretty much covered.It's pretty much another chance for Chevy Chase to act the fool in a long line of gags and pratfalls, from hanging decoration's from his house to driving his car under an articulated lorry.The film does have a rather impressive cast with Beverly D'Angelo again as his wife Ellen with Juliette Lewis as Audrey and Johnny Galecki as Rusty filling in for the kids.Not forgetting Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a snobby neighbour.While the overall feel of the film doesn't cry out as a classic Xmas movie, although like most things this is all down to personal opinion, my go-to Xmas movie has been Trading Places but I have to say that National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is definitely there in second place.And while it does feel a little episodic in places, there are plenty of laugh out loud moments, but it does seem that Mr Chase gets all the funny stuff to do while most of the cast just sort of stand around reacting to his imbecility. And I suppose this is what hinges on whether you find the National Lampoon movies funny or not, do you find Chevy Chase funny???but thats a question for another day...
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