National lampoon s christmas vacation
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American comedy about Clark Griswold trying to host a perfect family Christmas. Chevy Chase stars as Clark. It is the Christmas film in the Vacation series, not a remake of the 1983 road movie.
How it works
The movie is a holiday farce with a simple engine: Clark wants one traditional house Christmas, and every relative, fuse, tree, and workplace surprise gets in the way. Beverly D'Angelo returns as Ellen. Randy Quaid plays Cousin Eddie, who arrives in an RV. The children are Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki. John Hughes wrote the screenplay from his own National Lampoon short story. Jeremiah Chechik directed.
You do not need the earlier Vacation films to follow this one. The family is the same idea — Clark overplans, the house fills up, the plan collapses in public — but the trip is not a cross-country drive. The “trip” is the relatives coming to him. The set pieces people remember are the exterior lights, the tree, the turkey, the neighbors, and the boss. Naming those scenes is enough to know whether you have the right title.
It is a rated comedy from 1989, with language and adult jokes. It is not a children’s nativity film and it is not a concert. If you put it on for a mixed room, know the room. The Christmas dressing is sincere even while the gags are broad: Clark’s wish is ordinary; the execution is not.
The title people actually type
Search boxes scramble the words. National lampoon's vacation christmas vacation, lampoon national christmas vacation, and national lampoon a christmas vacation are the same 1989 picture if the poster still says Christmas Vacation and the lead is still Chevy Chase in a winter house. National lampoon's christmas vacation christmas vacation is the same query with the subtitle repeated. None of those strings is a second movie.
The 1983 film is National Lampoon's Vacation, a summer road comedy. European Vacation and Vegas Vacation are other chapters. A later television film, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure, is a 2003 spin-off that follows Eddie, not Clark. If the story is a suburban house in winter with a lighting stunt, you want the 1989 film.
1989 theatrical film: Clark, Ellen, Eddie, the house, Christmas. 1983 Vacation: a summer road trip, not this plot. 2003 TV film: Cousin Eddie, without Chevy Chase as the lead. Clark’s Christmas is a checklist. Everyone else’s Christmas is what happens to the checklist.
What you are sitting down to watch
Expect a crowded house, not a quiet candle service. Parents on both sides arrive. Eddie and Catherine arrive. Clark’s workplace hangs over the week because he is waiting on a holiday bonus he has already spent in his head. The comedy is domestic: food, sleeping arrangements, a yard, a fuse box, a neighbor who does not want to live inside Clark’s display.
People replay it because the wish is still common. Someone in the family still wants the lights to go on all at once. Someone still invites more people than the table was built for. The film is not a manual. It is a warning dressed as a party. If you want a gentle period piece, this is the wrong cassette. If you want the Griswolds at Christmas, this is the one with that name on the box.
Casting is part of why the title stuck. Chase’s Clark is eager and brittle. Quaid’s Eddie is the relative who will not read the room. D'Angelo’s Ellen is the person trying to keep a household in motion while the plan is on fire. That triangle is the movie. The rest of the company fills the dining room so the triangle has witnesses.
Questions and answers
- Is this the same film as National Lampoon's Vacation?
- No. Vacation is the 1983 road comedy. Christmas Vacation is the 1989 winter film with the same family idea.
- Who stars in it?
- Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen, and Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie, with Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki as the children.
- Is there another National Lampoon Christmas movie?
- Yes. A 2003 television film follows Cousin Eddie. It is not a substitute for the 1989 house Christmas.
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