← Back to Reviews
in
"5"
MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
The year is no spelling mistake
total movie count ........... viewing day count
299 .......................... 358
__________________________
December 25th
—— 1989 ——
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S
CHRISTMAS
VACATION
—— comedy ——
Chevy Chase comes chiming straight into this
classic Christmas comedy!
‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’, which is the is third film in the ‘Vacation’ franchise, and one of the most successful and popular due to it becoming quite a holiday tradition in homes around the world. I think this was my first introduction to the Griswold family, though I can’t recall ever seeing it in full until now. I wrote a review for the first film a long way back, which you can check out here if you want. Anyways, for this year’s vacation, Clark and his family celebrate Christmas with caution, choosing to stay home for a traditional time of the year, with a good old fashioned and fun time with the whole family. Of course, things don’t go as planned and this Christmas eventually ends in chaos…
I enjoyed the original ‘Vacation’ quite a bit, because despite being based on loose sketches bound together in a singular chain of events moving from one to the next, it still succeeded surprisingly well in creating a straight forward comedy. It had a lot of iconic moments that is still talked about today and to some extent the ‘Christmas’ edition of the franchise isn’t without bright moments. I remember the whole deal about the Christmas tree, which is a pain to get a hold of and ends up being too big for the house. There is some nice slapstick comedy there. The Christmas light catastrophe is also a nice gag, which plays out rather nicely, especially with the annoying but amusing-to-watch neighbors.
Yet, generally, I feel like this is less of a movie than the first. The movie is sillier, it is less coherent and it is less meaningful. It just doesn’t come charging with the same impact as the original nor does it keep it all together as well. As a Christmas comedy, it is totally digestible to sit down and watch, while already digesting the Christmas dinner, but it is a little too sugary sweet and flimsy to be the best present you will get that day. Of course, Chevy Chase still has great comedic timing and the Griswold family is as crazy as ever, which his two things that keeps the current charged throughout, even if it has a few fallouts…
+
__________________________
MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
The year is no spelling mistake
total movie count ........... viewing day count
299 .......................... 358
__________________________
December 25th
—— 1989 ——
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S
CHRISTMAS
VACATION
—— comedy ——
Chevy Chase comes chiming straight into this
classic Christmas comedy!
‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’, which is the is third film in the ‘Vacation’ franchise, and one of the most successful and popular due to it becoming quite a holiday tradition in homes around the world. I think this was my first introduction to the Griswold family, though I can’t recall ever seeing it in full until now. I wrote a review for the first film a long way back, which you can check out here if you want. Anyways, for this year’s vacation, Clark and his family celebrate Christmas with caution, choosing to stay home for a traditional time of the year, with a good old fashioned and fun time with the whole family. Of course, things don’t go as planned and this Christmas eventually ends in chaos…
I enjoyed the original ‘Vacation’ quite a bit, because despite being based on loose sketches bound together in a singular chain of events moving from one to the next, it still succeeded surprisingly well in creating a straight forward comedy. It had a lot of iconic moments that is still talked about today and to some extent the ‘Christmas’ edition of the franchise isn’t without bright moments. I remember the whole deal about the Christmas tree, which is a pain to get a hold of and ends up being too big for the house. There is some nice slapstick comedy there. The Christmas light catastrophe is also a nice gag, which plays out rather nicely, especially with the annoying but amusing-to-watch neighbors.
Yet, generally, I feel like this is less of a movie than the first. The movie is sillier, it is less coherent and it is less meaningful. It just doesn’t come charging with the same impact as the original nor does it keep it all together as well. As a Christmas comedy, it is totally digestible to sit down and watch, while already digesting the Christmas dinner, but it is a little too sugary sweet and flimsy to be the best present you will get that day. Of course, Chevy Chase still has great comedic timing and the Griswold family is as crazy as ever, which his two things that keeps the current charged throughout, even if it has a few fallouts…
+
__________________________