When you have some time to waste, any of the movies in the National Lampoon "Vacation" series is worth killing some time with. Chevy Chase knew the part of Clark Griswold and always managed to capture the character bang-on. Beverley D'Angelo as his long-suffering wife Ellen also hit the ground running in her first stab at the character. (I was a bit surprised to see her do two topless scenes in this - one fairly close-up in the shower, the other from a distance at the hotel pool.) As far as I know, Chase and D'Angelo are the only actors to have been in all 4 movies. This initial chapter in the series spawned three sequels (European Vacation, Christmas Vacation and Vegas Vacation.) Of the four in the series I have to say that my favourite (for various reasons) was Christmas Vacation. Interestingly, given that sequels tend to go on a downward spiral in terms of quality, I thought this initial chapter was perhaps the weakest of the four movies - still good for a laugh, but not as funny as the others (certainly I'd rank "Christmas" and "Vegas" ahead of it.)
Here, Clark decides to take his family (somewhat against their will) on a drive from Chicago to California to go to "Walley World" - a National Lampoon spoof on the Disney World theme parks. They have the assorted adventures along the way that you expect, including the requisite time spent with Cousin Eddy (Randy Quaid) and his family - cousin Eddy is always one of my favourite characters in the series. It's good fun.
What weakened it (in my opinion at least) was that Clark seemed less lovable (if you will) in this movie. Maybe it was just the way that the character evolved, but in his initial outing he seems harder, he spews a lot of foul language (even in front of his kids) and there are a number of scenes where he just doesn't seem like the Clark Griswold who appears in the later movies. There were also too many unnecessary characters (or, at least, characters whose place went on far too long.) I didn't care for Aunt Edna. I thought Christie Brinkley's unnamed character was humorous for one scene, but she kept appearing everywhere the Griswold's went - she started to seem as creepy as a stalker after a while. And John Candy's security guard at Walley World was too over the top. He wasn't a believable character at all - and watching the Griswold's ride the roller coasters with him got really old really fast.
So, this is my least favourite of the "Vacation" series. I can't be too hard on it though. It spawned three very funny sequels, and for whatever shortcomings it may have it still packs a few laughs of its own.
Here, Clark decides to take his family (somewhat against their will) on a drive from Chicago to California to go to "Walley World" - a National Lampoon spoof on the Disney World theme parks. They have the assorted adventures along the way that you expect, including the requisite time spent with Cousin Eddy (Randy Quaid) and his family - cousin Eddy is always one of my favourite characters in the series. It's good fun.
What weakened it (in my opinion at least) was that Clark seemed less lovable (if you will) in this movie. Maybe it was just the way that the character evolved, but in his initial outing he seems harder, he spews a lot of foul language (even in front of his kids) and there are a number of scenes where he just doesn't seem like the Clark Griswold who appears in the later movies. There were also too many unnecessary characters (or, at least, characters whose place went on far too long.) I didn't care for Aunt Edna. I thought Christie Brinkley's unnamed character was humorous for one scene, but she kept appearing everywhere the Griswold's went - she started to seem as creepy as a stalker after a while. And John Candy's security guard at Walley World was too over the top. He wasn't a believable character at all - and watching the Griswold's ride the roller coasters with him got really old really fast.
So, this is my least favourite of the "Vacation" series. I can't be too hard on it though. It spawned three very funny sequels, and for whatever shortcomings it may have it still packs a few laughs of its own.