Rating:

Good purchase.

Rating:

If didn’t collapse so easily whenever you lean something against it, then I would recommend it, but so far, no.

Rating:

You won’t hear the familiar strains of Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” in “Christmas Vacation,” and there are no corpses strapped to the top of a station wagon either. Instead, the film invites us into the Griswold home for an old fashioned Christmas celebration the likes of which soon reach catastrophic levels. Clark (Chevy Chase) and Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) Griswold, along with their disinterested kids Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Russ (Johnny Galecki), invite the whole family over for a season filled with happiness. Clark’s parents Clark Sr. (John Randolph) and Nora (Diane Ladd) show up, as does Ellen’s folks Art (E.G. Marshall) and Frances (Doris Roberts). And yes, even Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) makes an appearance to save the day. Of course, along with the family comes the inevitable frustrations and stresses everyone who has ever dealt with a reunion dreads. Clark Griswold refuses, at least initially, to fall into a morass of cynicism and despair amidst the bickering and insults. His invention of a new milk preservative has our hero hoping his Christmas bonus will be extra big this year, big enough so he can install an in ground swimming pool in the backyard. Unfortunately, his boss Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray) is a scrooge with plans to make the company more fiscally conservative.

While he waits for the check to arrive at the house, Clark embarks on several hilarious projects that haul in the belly laughs. His attempts to cover every square inch of his house with Christmas lights is a chore requiring several falls off a ladder, pointed verbal repartees with his snotty neighbors Margo and Todd Chester (Julia-Louis Dreyfus and Nicholas Guest), and repeated failures to get the strands to light up. The acquisition and installment of the Griswold family Christmas tree is another chore handled in Clark’s inimitable style. Imagine the pine they string up in Rockefeller Square every year, subtract roughly five feet from its height, and you have the tree Clark insists on setting up in the house. This thing is so huge that the branches knock out the windows when Griswold cuts the rope holding the branches together. No Yuletide season, however, would be complete without a trip to the slopes for a sledding excursion, an event filled with disastrous implications when Griswold comes up with the bright idea to cover the bottom of his sled with a Teflon based substance. My favorite scenario involves Clark trapped in his attic for a few hours. He spends his time dressed up in women’s clothing (to stay warm) watching old home movies of his childhood. His abrupt fall through the trap door had me laughing for hours afterwards.

The cast of “Christmas Vacation” gels fantastically, far better than any cast in the other three films. Kudos as always go to Randy Quaid as the squirrelly moocher Eddie; a film in this series just wouldn’t be the same without this character driving Clark to fits of distraction. Beverly D’Angelo is one of those actresses who get hotter and hotter with age. The linchpin of the film is, as always, Chevy Chase as the disaster prone Clark Griswold. This is a role tailor made for his brand of clumsy, caustic humor. I don’t know about you, but Chase’s depiction reminds me in many ways of my own father–he won’t listen to the advice of anyone else, his ideas are the best ideas, he tosses safety to the wind when working on dangerous projects, etc. But like my Dad–and probably countless other fathers–Clark is sincere and wants his loved ones to have wonderful family memories. The film works so well, I suspect, because most of us instantly recognize his character traits in our own beloved family patriarchs. Especially when Clark can’t stand the pressure anymore and launches into one of his over the top tirades, again a trademark of our own fed up fathers.

Although the DVD carries the “Special Edition” tag, the extras are surprisingly sparse. A trailer and a commentary constitute the sum total of goodies available on the disc. Moreover, the commentary doesn’t include Chevy Chase. At least you hear Randy Quaid, Beverly D’Angelo, Johnny Galecki, Miriam Flynn (Eddie’s wife Catherine), director Jeremiah Chechik, and producer Marty Simmons, but why no Clark W. Griswold? Perhaps he wanted too much money. His absence is unfortunate and mars what is otherwise a great commentary track. I don’t even wait until Christmas to watch this movie; it’s fun works year round. If you haven’t seen it yet, you ought to immediately. You’ll love it.