A Raunchy Family Comedy Of Errors Is The Greatest Holiday Movie Of All Time

Written by Robert Scocchi | Published 28 seconds ago

With the holiday season quickly approaching, it’s time for me to continue a Thanksgiving tradition that I actually enjoy more than eating a turkey and pawning off the leftovers to my guests. That’s right, once you’ve left the company, the lights have dimmed, and the cranberry sauce has congealed enough to scrape the plate clean and toss it straight into the trash, it’s time to dig into the DVD bin and start playing the 1989 movies. Christmas vacationa movie I’ve been watching every Thanksgiving evening for longer than I can consciously remember.

Every family is dysfunctional to some degree, including my own, and I think that’s why the movies are so popular Christmas vacation They are universally loved. They lean into our fears about the perfect family vacation by showing how things can actually go much worse than we could ever imagine.

Next time you’re wondering if your in-laws are going to drive you up the wall this holiday season, it’s in your best interest to watch… Christmas vacation. You’ll feel better about your own situation after watching the Griswold family crumble under the pressure to find the perfect Christmas tree, decorate the house, set the dinner table, and make it to New Year’s Eve in one piece.

The best entry into a vacation franchise by a country mile

Christmas vacationlike the National Lampoon Vacation films before it, focuses on the Griswold family, who can never catch a break. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is his usual uptight self as he plans the perfect vacation and is determined to do his best this year. The first incident involves dragging his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), son Rusty (Johnny Galecki) and daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis) to an unknown location to find the perfect Christmas tree. The plan backfires immediately and continues to backfire throughout the course of the film, as the tree is extremely massive and causes a great deal of collateral damage whenever the threatening inanimate object gets the chance.

Planning to spend the upcoming Christmas bonus at an underground pool, Clark thinks he’s got it all figured out and rushes to finish decorating the halls before the company starts arriving. His plans are continually thwarted by the arrival of his parents Clark (John Randolph) and Nora (Diane Ladd) and Ellen’s parents Art (A.G. Marshall) and Frances (Doris Roberts). If dealing with parents isn’t enough chaos to deal with, the Griswold family is blessed with the presence of Elaine’s cousin Katherine (Miriam Flynn) and her husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), who don’t exactly conform to social norms or etiquette. Making matters worse are Clark’s uncle and aunt, Bethany (Mae Questel) and Louis (William Hickey), whose dementia adds to the looming holiday chaos that’s about to unfold.

Disasters take center stage

Each character was introduced to Christmas vacation The premise allows for easy escalation as Clark attempts to light up the house with thousands of lights, takes the kids on a disastrous ski trip, smoothes out family fallouts in cramped quarters, and deals with power outages, fires, a burning turkey, Eddie’s nuclear septic tank, and dozens of other mishaps that would break even the bravest of men. But Clark is not a stoic man. He is stressed, obsessed, and stressed to the max by the outside forces of the extended family while doing his best to keep it together, wondering when he will get the Christmas bonus he previously spent on his surprise pool.

Add some strong eggnog and a chainsaw to the equation, and… Christmas vacation It becomes a complete disastrous masterclass in how not to handle the holidays if you don’t want your family to see you completely walk away from the wall when your buttons are pushed too hard. Every improper preparation leads to an irreversible accident, causes a great deal of structural damage, and even endangers people’s lives. It’s up to the Griswold family to save the holiday from themselves, even if the holiday has already passed the point of no return.

Come for the joy, stay for the downfalls

Christmas vacation is one of those overly explosive holiday movies that never seems to get old because every crescendo feels like the final holiday boss is overcome before anyone can recover from what just happened to them. Like the Home Alone movies, it introduces an impossible amount of collateral damage that no real family could reasonably survive. Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do, and this is the perfect way to prepare for the holidays if you have reservations about being a guest or having special guests of your own.

Strongly inclined to his comic charm, Christmas vacation It’s uncompromising in its delivery, vividly violent, and surprisingly informative if you consider what’s actually at stake here. Clark Griswold may become increasingly restless during his vacation trip, but because of his deep concern for his family, he is blinded by his own ambition. Next time you’re questioned by the in-laws over improper placement of an ornament, just remember that it’s a minor detail that can be easily corrected, unlike a rabid squirrel hiding in your Christmas tree who will choose the perfect moment to embark on his nutty rampage.

Christmas vacation Flows on Max.