John Hughes Movie: Christmas Vacation (1989)

Never before has the phrase 'holiday fun for the whole family' been more suitable. Well ok, there are certainly some mature themes here but this is one of the funniest Christmas movies around.

After European Vacation in 1985, the National Lampoon film series returned with Christmas Vacation. Clark Griswald (Chevy Chase) has convinced his wife, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) to let him have his dream, a big family christmas at home, with all the relatives around. But from the very start, things do not go as planned. By ten minutes in, the Griswald family have already been involved in highway road rage, been stuck under a truck, been airborn in their car and got a ludicriously inappropriate christmas tree. But that's just the begining.

Much like the first vacation, the Griswald family seem to be surrounded by absolutely hilarious accidents. From redneck Cousin Eddie's (Randy Quaid) appearence to exploding sewer mains, nothing seems to go as planned. The gags are generally derived from either the sort of jokes that bring out your inner 12 year old or pure slapstick, but don't feel guilty for laughing, because the unstoppable surge of antics rarely ever hits a sour note.

All of this humour is balanced out by heartwarming, albeit cheesy family moments, which is exactly what you'd expect from a comedy family movie, and seems to suit the christmas theme quite well. As well as Chase and D'Angelo, who reprise their roles perfectly well, the rest of the cast seem to gel fantastically with their characters, because they are entertaining from start to finish.

This is also one of those films where you recognise one of the actors from something (not just the child actors here) but you're not sure what they've been in. Then there's the great moment when you realise who they are and it's amazing to see how they've aged since. So I won't ruin that for you all by telling you who all the great actors are in this film.

This is a lighthearted, hilarious comedy movie that is perfect to run in the background whilst relaxing on Christmas day. As our final John Hughes movie for the month, this one is definitely a classic.

John Hughes Month: Vacation (1983)

After Animal House was released in 1978 (and I promise to review that one of these days because it is hands down the funniest movie ever), there were a bunch of raunchy comedies that came out in the early-1980s. These comedies were influenced a lot by the (just new) sketch show Saturday Night Live. These films included Caddyshack (1980), Stripes (1981) and Porky's (1982) and starred actors like Bill Murray, John Candy and Chevy Chase.

Vacation (or to use it's full title National Lampoon's Vacation) is written by Hughes and based on a story he wrote about his own family's ill-fated road trip to Disneyland. Chevy Chase plays his most memorable role ever; family man Clark Griswold (changed to Griswald in the sequels) who just wants to please his family. This time around he has planned to take them all to Walley World in California.

Hilarious gags and mishaps dog them all the way, including tying a dog to the bumper on the highway, the death of Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) and getting stuck in downtown St Louis, as well as many, many more, like that creepy incest joke.

In addition to Chevy Chase's wide eyed Clark, Beverly D'Angelo plays his long suffering wife Ellen and his two kids Rusty and Audrey are played by Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron. The two other hilarious performances come from Randy Quaid's idiot character Cousin Eddie, who is the biggest redneck ever, and John Candy's ultra-officious Walley World security guard. There are also two great cameos from model Christie Brinkley and future funny man Eugene Levy.

Verdict: Not a traditional John Hughes movie as such, but the more adult oriented vision is fantastic, especially with Harold Ramis' superb direction.