Review of National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) by Gavin S — 27 Dec 2011

This is a wonderful comedy film, probably one of the funniest ever made. Chevy Chase is excellent as the bumbling but immensely likeable Clark Griswold, as he takes his family on a fortnight-long road trip from Chicago, IL to the Wally World theme park in California. Inevitably, this leads to great friction and tension between the family members and even a couple of deaths in between. Eventually, they arrive but the fun doesn't end then...

Vacation is successful because it's fairly simple. There's no ridiculously over-the-top special effects and no extremely complex premise. It uses the simple scenario of a family going on holiday and produces a very effective, funny picture. The four members of the family are very different characters and, mixed together, they create a supremely funny atmosphere which we can enjoy for the entire film (and the other works in the Vacation series!).

Chevy Chase gives a fantastic performance, which is a lot deeper than it first appears, after some analysis. Up until this vacation, he seemed to be missing something and may have been slowly drifting away from his family. This is aggravated on the actual journey with many conflicts between him and other family members and it all reaches boiling point at the Wally World park in a scenario involving John Candy. However, whatever it was he was missing, Chase regains late in the film and this leads to a highly enjoyable and satisfying conclusion.

Overall, Vacation is a great picture, guaranteed to make you laugh- but it will probably make you think as well.