Review of National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) by Christopher F — 02 Apr 2012

MAJOR blast from the past here and it still holds up really well today despite being really seriously dated. The appearance is almost historical with all those 80's clothes, cars and electronic gear (the sequence with 'Clarke' using the old computer, check those graphics! may have even been an old Atari, not sure) but the laughs all round are still gold, silly but pure gold.

You have to remember that these days this kind of thing is completely unoriginal and pretty lame really, but when this first came out it was quite unique.

Best scenes include...the red Ferrari driving blonde and 'Clarke' trying to impress her, highjacking 'WallyWorld', the annoying auntie who then pops her clogs, Randy Quaid as 'Eddie' and arriving at 'WallyWorld' to find its closed with 'Clarke' then throwing a wobbly LOL!! many other various in-car travel moments along the way also make you smile.

The main thing is you can relate to it completely, maybe not now, but back in the day as a kid I had a few roadtrips on holiday with my parents and it actually was like this at times, it really was haha! especially how 'Clarke' sweats allot through his gloriously 80's t-shirts, my dad did exactly that lol!

Ramis really hit home with this excellent comedy and to think for years I had no clue he was the director, much like the rest of the cast I didn't really know who they were. Now of course its a cult and virtually part of the American way, the rest of the world used to see Americans as the Griswold's, best not mention that to them hehe.