National Lampoon's Vacation Fest
As reviewed by Miguel Copulation Kesey
Oh, hunky dory...during the National Lampoon's Vacation Fest, myself, Mon and Lorraine watched "National Lampoon's Vacation" , "National Lampoon's European Vacation" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". The movies star Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and children who constantly change...
Personally, I regard these movies as hilariously funny simply due to the fact the humour is absolutely crap and they take the utter piss out of American middle-class culture.
First up was Vacation, in which the Griswolds, a typical American family from Chicago attempt to drive across America to Walley World, National Lampoon's version of Disneyworld. The family is led by Clark W. Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, a comic genius in my opinion, you can't get much better than his role in Fletch, can you? ("Strangers in my pants...") Clark is a typical American dad, working the food additive industry, attempting to bond with his family, wanting a good old-fashioned family vacation. Then there's his wife Ellen, played by Beverly D'Angelo, who seems to talk an awful lot of shit. And finally there's the children, Rusty and Audrey, whom Clark refers to now and then as "My daughters Rusty and Audrey" by mistake, despite Rusty being a guy.
Anyway, in their attempts to get to Walley World, they have many an accident, including their old aunt dying (so they strap her corpse to the top of the car), tying a dog to the rear bumper and driving away, meeting Ellen's cousins Eddie (Randy Quaid) and Catherine who seem to be redneck trash constantly bumming money from Clark, falling asleep at the wheel, and jumping the car fifty feet by mistake, until finally they arrive at Walley World, and, alas, it's closed for repairs and cleaning.
So, Clark flips and buys a "Magnum P.I." from Sporting Goods and holds the security guards as hostages as he and his family ride the rollercoasters...in the end, they get arrested but all is forgiven.
Then came "European Vacation"...now the kids are less annoying, and actually quite funny! This time, the Griswolds win a TV game show in which they've had to dress up as pigs. They, in fact, win it by accident, and their prize is a European vacation...
Classic lines from this movie include :
Air Hostess - Would you like a drink, sir?
Clark - Yes, a coke please.
Air Hostess - And do you want that in the can?
Clark - Umm...no, I'll have it right here.
The Griswolds travel to England, Germany, France and Italy and the usual mishaps occur. Look out for the fighting scene on the train in Germany in which Clark tries desperately not to burst out laughing...
Christmas Vacation was National Lampoon's vain attempt to bring the Griswolds back to life. Made years after European Vacation, the children had become younger, looking strangely like Juliette Lewis and that guy who plays David in Roseanne. There's lots of pink in this film, according to Lorraine, and the Griswolds attempt to enjoy the "thpirit of the grithwoldth family chrithmath" at home, inviting all their relatives to stay....needless to say, the same shit happens all over again. The tree explodes, squirrels are on the loose, faulty Christmas lights, falling off ladders etc. It even has Brian Doyle Murray, most noted for his role as....err...well, no-one really, he's in everything, yet plays no-one...except Noah Vanderhoff in Wayne's World.
The vacation movies are simple, slapstick, brain-dead humour, but there's an underlying sarcasm that makes these films attractive to me. And the fact that I thought they were funny when I was just a little boy helps as well...Watch these movies now, and if you don't laugh at least once at the sheer stupidity, then if I had a rubber hose, I'd beat you...