Sleevenotes:

This holiday season Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) vows his clan will enjoy "the most fun-filled family Christmas ever." Before you can sing "Fa-la-la-la-lah," he decks the halls with howls of folly in the perennial favourite National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Seeing is believing. There are 25,000 lights on the roof. An exploding turkey on the dining room table. A SWAT team taking siege outside. A festive supporting cast (including Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Juliette Lewis, William Hickey and more). And a John Hughes script full of wit, heart and sheer goofiness. Yule love it!

Review:
Chevy Chase hits the jackpot with his finest performance as the ultimate family man - Clark W. Griswold. This movie is not only a Christmas classic but one of the finest comedies of all time. For me this sits alongside the Fletch movies as the funniest movies ever. And most amazingly it achieves this comic genius while still retaining it's family values and ensuring the whole family can enjoy this each and every Christmas. This is a comic legend enjoying his finest hour and you should go and enjoy it too. This film has links with 'It's a Wonderful Life' in that Capra's classic is showing on one of the TV's in the house and they both have suspect loop posts on the bannister. But their biggest similarity is that Christmas isn't Christmas without either of them.

Funniest scenes:
Clark manoeuvres the family station wagon underneath a moving lorry - "Do you honestly think I don't know that?"

Clark finds the family tree he's been searching for - "Dad, did you bring a saw?"

Clark unveils the Christmas tree in the front room - "Looks great. A little full. Lot of sap."

Clark meets the boss and his cronies - "Merry Christmas, kiss my ass, kiss his ass, kiss your ass, happy Hunakkah."

Clark at the lingerie counter - classic ad-libbing - "It's a bit nipply out.", "Can't see the line can you Rus'?"

Clark staples his sleeve to the roof.

Clark opens the loft hatch - legendary.

Clark finds the loose floor boards in the loft - slapstick comedy perfection.

Ellen opens the loft hatch.

The lights come on for the first time - "The little lights are not twinkling Clark."

Clark and Eddie enjoy an eggnog - it really doesn't get any better than this.

Clark takes flight on his sled.

Clark dreams of his new pool...

Eddie shows his surprise at Clark offering to buy the kids Christmas presents - "Here's a little list alphabetical starting with Catherine."

Clark slices open the turkey - "It's just a little dry, it's fine. Here's the heart."

Clark fries the cat when he plugs the tree lights in.

Lewis fries Clark's tree - "At least it's out of it's misery."

Clark flips out when he receives his Christmas bonus - "Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the tylenol?"

Clark deals with the squirrel. Eventually.

The SWAT team arrives and Ellen grabs the first thing she can find...

Top lines:
Clark: "Hey kids look - a deer!"

Todd: "Hey Griswold! Where do you think you're gonna put a tree that big?"
Clark: "Bend over and I'll show you."
Todd: "You've got a lot of nerve talking to me like that!"
Clark: "I wasn't talking to you."

Clark: "This is what Christmas is all about. I'll park the cars, check the luggage and er, yeah, I'll be outside for a ... season."

Audrey: "Do you sleep with your brother? Do you know how sick and twisted that is?"
Ellen: "Well, I'm sleeping with your father - don't be so dramatic."

Audrey: "He worked really hard Grandma."
Art': "So do washing machines."

Eddie: "Are you surprised?"
Clark: "Surprised Eddie? If I woke up tomorrow morning with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now."

Eddie: "The older boy, bless his soul, is preparing for his career."
Clark: "College?"
Eddie: "Carnival."

Clark: "Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere, leave you for dead?"

Ellen: "What are you looking at?"
Clark: "Oh, the silent majesty of a winters morn, the clean, cool chill of the holiday air, an arsehole in his bathrobe emptying a chemical toilet in my sewer."
Eddie: "Shitter was full!"
Clark: "Ah, yeah. Have you checked our shitters honey?"

Bethany: "Can you hear something? It's a funny, squeaky sound."
Lewis: "You couldn't hear a dump truck reversing through a nitroglycerine plant!"

Ellen: "Clark, I think it's best if everyone just goes home. Before things get worse."
Clark: "Worse? How can it get any worse? Take a look around you Ellen - we're at the threshold of Hell!"

Fletch UK Rating: 10 out of 10

Links:
imdb.com
yahoo movies
laker jim's griswold world
walley world