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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 42.67%
Worth A Look: 53.33%
Average: 1.33%
Pretty Bad: 1.33%
Total Crap: 1.33%
3 reviews, 57 user ratings
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| National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation |
by Ryan Arthur
"Mind if I take you out in the woods, leave you for dead?"

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This movie has William Hickey! William Hickey!And if you don't know who William Hickey is, I'm gonna come to your house and beat you with small woodland creatures until you DO know, dammit.
The Griswolds are home this Christmas. Instead of heading to WallyWorld, Vegas, or Europe, they're spending the holidays at home, and they've invited the family. Clark (Chevy Chase) is doing what he can to get in the Christmas spirit: he's getting the biggest tree he can find ("Looks great!...Lotta sap.."), and stringing up 125,000 Christmas lights, neighbors and power companies be damned. The kids (Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki, this time around) seem less than enthusiastic, and Audrey (Beverly D'Angelo) is sort of resigned to Clark's ineptitude. Both sets of in-laws, a wacky aunt and uncle (Mae Questel and William F'ing Hickey!) show up, as does Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) with family in tow in a shitbox mobile home.
The general Griwold/vacation wackiness ensues, including a cat getting fried and Clark's boss getting abducted and gift-wrapped as a gift to Clark.
Better than European and Vegas Vacation, this is also where we started to see some of the outright John Hughes slapstick that would filter through (and ultimately make up) his later films. Thankfully, there aren't two bumbling burglars. It's got some genuinely funny moments, and some hit-and-miss ones, too, but all in all, a decent flick.Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no! We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here! We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye! And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the
jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse!
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1116&reviewer=7 originally posted: 10/15/98 00:08:47
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For more in the National Lampoon Movies series, click here.
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USA 02-Feb-1990 (PG-13) DVD: 07-Oct-2003
UK N/A
Australia 02-Jul-1990 (PG)
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