National Lampoon's Vacation
Published November 22, 2022
Film info
- Title National Lampoon's Vacation
- Director Harold Ramis
- Year 1983
- Run time 1hr 39m
- Genres Comedy, Adventure
- Tagline Every summer Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip. This year he went too far.
Chevy Chase mans the wheel and convinces his all-American family that the way to really enjoy their holiday is to hit the road west for Walley World. And so the Griswolds take us in their station wagon on the ultimate comic cross-country trip full of laughs, landmarks, falling asleep at the wheel, and just how to deal with annoying Aunt Edna's untimely fate in the middle of the 'perfect' vacation.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:41 | Lindsey Buckingham! No wonder this is a great credit sequence. |
| 7:20 | “Nothing worthwhile is easy,” he says… and I think he’ll regret saying that later. |
| 10:43 | That is a long old anthem for a rubbishy amusement park. |
| 13:04 | Amazing facts about a tower. “Can we go up in it?” “No.” |
| 17:25 | “You get weird when you get tired.” Same. |
| 22:36 | “Weirdorama.” |
| 33:10 | I don’t know what they were eating but I want no part of it. |
| 39:59 | Not fair on the kid to be saddled with the terrifying dog. |
| 40:19 | $37 for three tents, eh. |
| 47:17 | Oh no, the food looked so good. Damn windows. |
| 49:55 | “As long as you don’t tie me to the rear bumper.” |
| 58:55 | It’s like some kind of clown car now! |
| 1:01:51 | Looking at the Grand Canyon for all of five seconds. |
| 1:06:41 | After this journey, I really wouldn’t be in an amusement park mood. |
| 1:21:04 | You can get to it from the next three exits? How big is it?? |
| 1:28:49 | That kid got to ride on a rollercoaster next to John Candy. |
Thoughts
We have been wanting to watch the Christmas Vacation entry in this series for a good few years now, but wanting to watch the series in the right order meant that by the time it got to December each year, we were too deep in other tinsel movies to make way for the two Griswold adventures. Not this year! Finally, we’ve managed to squeeze in and do the homework ahead of the Christmas season.
With that being said, I’m so annoyed we have ended up waiting so long to watch it. This movie is SO GOOD. It was so funny, just utterly hilarious and crucially, without being distasteful - even when dealing with a dead aunt or some genuine terrorism right at the end. It’s fun because none of the characters change or grow, they just endure and somehow still manage to achieve their goal despite everything not quite going in their favour.
Plus it has great music, what’s not to like??
Rating: 5 / 5