National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation  ★★★

MANY people have a fondness for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

This 1989 comedy has some very funny sequences and again showcases the under-rated comic talents of Chevy Chase.

But, as the third film in the series that started in 1983, it doesn’t have the same laugh rate of the original or the first follow-up, European Vacation.

The main reason why is that the Griswold family are not taken out of their comfort zone and confronted with out-of-the-ordinary problems that exacerbate Clark’s hapless innocence and create more inventive scenarios.

The first three Vacation films were written by John Hughes (Home Alone, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club) but Christmas Vacation is one of his lesser efforts.

The other problem with Christmas Vacation is a lack of over-arching story, never getting further than the Griswolds have a crazy Christmas with their bickering, annoying in-laws.

The main running gag involving Clark’s Christmas lights is a good one and Hughes manages to extract a range of scenarios and laughs from such a simple premise.

While I’m not familiar with Chase’s full career, Clark Griswold has to be his stand-out role achieving a similar balance of endearing hopelessness akin to Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean or Michael Crawford’s Frank Spencer.

Christmas vacation benefits greatly from the return of Randy Quaid as Clark’s simple, redneck cousin Eddie, an excellent performance with the best lines of the film. Also good support are Beverly D’Angelo, returing again as Clark’s wife Ellen, and veteran comic actor William Hickey as grandpa.

Watch out for a young Juliette Lewis who takes on the role of Clark’s daughter Audrey. Just two years later her career will take off as the innocent target of Robert de Niro’s protagonist in Martin Scorsese’s terrific Cape Fear remake.