Review of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) by Alexander D — 21 Oct 2011

The Vacationers have taken a brave turn in their series, as CHRISTMAS VACATION is still as farcical as the last two (VACATION and EUROPEAN VACATION), but the first one not to be a road movie. In fact, if you believe that "vacation" is definitively travel, then this maybe should be called "National Lampoon's Christmas Staycation", to use a pun-esque portmanteau meaning a holiday spent staying at home, and also to mislead far less viewers and fans.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION is a considerable improvement from EUROPEAN VACATION (the dumbest one of the series until 1997's VEGAS VACATION), but it still isn't as good as the original VACATION (it's been considered by many the best road comedy of all-time!). Within the last few years, I've made a tradition of watching this film every Christmas Eve. It's just that good: it has the spirit, the laughs, and between '89 (its release) and 2011, there hasn't yet been a holiday comedy to top it.

Reelz was airing this on TV on the 22nd of October of 2011 (around the time all the crazy people start their Christmas shopping), and I watched it for my fourth or fifth time. Okay, call me crazy if you wish for watching a Christmas film before Halloween or Thanksgiving has come. My excuse is that there are so many scenes in this film--Christmas or not--that are classic, and it would take at least brain surgery to forget them.