Review of National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) by Shane M — 08 Jul 2014

The best in the Vacation series, and one of, if not the best entry in the once-great National Lampoon franchise. Adapted from John Hughes' short story Vacation '58, a story published in National Lampoon magazine, Vacation follows the Griswold family taking a trip to Wally World, but end up running into nonstop issues along the way.

Vacation is an over-exaggerated look at vacations going wrong, which was the inspiration for the short story (when Hughes was a boy, his family took an ill-fated trip to Disneyland), which later led to the production of this slapstick classic.

The film reveals tons of catastrophes on the trip, like losing some luggage and all the money and credit cards you had, taking the wrong turns on the road, driving through bad neighborhoods, causing unintentional and hilarious embarrassment for the kids, accidentally forgetting to put the dog in the car and drag it on the road for mile, killing it (the dog was bad), a family member joining and dying (spoilers throughout the review), crash the family car in the middle of the desert, make lots of noise and upset everyone at a hotel after jumping into a cold hotel pool.

Overall, it can be said that the trip is a massive mess, but it doesn't stop there, it continues when the Griswold's get to Wally World, leading to quite possibly the funniest scene in the entire movie, especially when it starts off with Clark Griswold losing his mind, buying a gun, and threatening a security guard, allowing him, the guard, and his family to surprisingly have fun at the park, but end up being surrounded by SWAT officers (nice vacation, huh? Yeah that's right, I do have a sense of humor.

). Despite all that mayhem, it makes viewers laugh thir ass off nonstop. The biggest nuisance is the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, a station wagon that always seems to have a problem while the Griswold's are on their trip, yet remains a very recognizable and popular car appearing in a movie.

Another known thing about Vacation are the quotes, and there's a lot of them as Vacation is one of the most quotable and consistently funny movies ever, and well-known quotes are, "Roll 'em up", "Find a bush, Audrey", "The moose says you're closed, I say you're open.

", and the quotes from Ellen, Rusty, and Audrey after crashing the wagon, "I think I broke my nose. I stabbed my brain. I just got my period." I thought the last one was the funniest, while the second one was my least favorite as it's the least funniest and the most juvenile (screwball comedy though, so it doesn't matter).

John Hughes offers up nonstop quotability, as well as nonstop laughs, and tons of ridiculousness to keep audiences laughing. Harold Ramis offers up lots of slapstick, perfect execution, getting every laugh out possible, and getting perfect comic performances from the cast, especially Chevy Chase I a tour de force as father Clark Griswold, a father determined to have fun, and reach his destination, while also doing unpredictable things in order to reach his goal.

Supporters such as Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie, and even John Candy in a small cameo as security guard Lasky offer up numerous laughs and help carry the movie. A comedy classic, and a movie worth re-watching even if it's rated R (you never expected it to be rated PG or PG-13 after telling you what happens in the movie).