My Review of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a movie that came out back in 1989. It's a movie I remember watching when I was a kid and kind of got me into the National Lampoon franchise. This may be nostalgia speaking for me, but I always have a fun time watching this movie.

It all starts off with a cartoon introduction of Santa Claus trying to deliver presents to what I assume is the Griswold family household. Seeing as it's a National Lampoon movie we see a whole bunch of wacky things happening to Santa Claus. That pretty much sets the mood for what you're about to experience throughout the runtime of this movie.

Here we have Clark and Ellen Griswold. They have decided to have their whole family over for the Christmas holidays. Ellen warns Clark of the craziness that will ensue if they decide to do this. Clark is an optimist and really wants this to work, much to the chagrin of their children Audrey and Rusty.

Everyone is going to have to make sacrifices because there's only so much space in the house and they've invited a lot of people. We get some fun antics with the Griswolds preparing for their guests. This movie really gets going when their family does arrive.

When the whole family comes over, this is when you see all of the wild personalities. Of course having all of these strong personalities in one space is going to start conflict. There's tons of fighting and somehow Clark and Ellen are still able to keep everyone together.

I particularly like the effect the family has on their neighbors. Their neighbors are the 80s depiction of what would be the norm in today's society. It's a couple with dual income and no kids. They are trying to enjoy their time off but they simply can't because the Griswold family is always up to something.

There's a lot of people that receive punishment that they don't deserve in this movie. I don't know why I found this so comical. It's almost like seeing a bunch of Charlie Brown characters in a movie. Each one of them constantly suffers from something and it's not their fault. In some ways, I think this movie makes people feel better about their own lives. At least they don't have to suffer the situations that the characters in this movie have to endure.

A lot of the movie revolves around some pretty absurd humor that is very cartoonish. There's a very Looney Tunes atmosphere that comes from this movie. It's an outlandish comedy so it's par for the course.

I found that each of the actors in this movie does a really good job in bringing light to their character. Each of them are so distinct and likeable in their own way. Even the most unlikable characters have something to like about them in this movie. I kind of give it to the actors for making them so affable.

Even still, I could see that some people of newer generations might not get into this. They might not understand this type of humor because humor today has changed so much. They may really not like Clark because of his lecherous thoughts and patriarchal attitude. This is one of those movie that you're going to have to view with the eye of the times. At the time this was the norm and it wasn't unheard.

Overall, I thought this movie was a ton of fun even after I've seen it so many times. To me this is a classic but I may have rose colored glasses because of nostalgia. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. It is a fun romp that I would recommend.