National Lampoon's Vacation
National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
What critics thought
A film that split critics sharply at release and has only grown more lopsided with time — original reviewers were genuinely divided, with some finding it sloppily constructed and smug, while the film has since built an overwhelming critical reputation as one of the defining screwball comedies of the 1980s. The gap between that later critical warmth and the notably cool audience reception it got on opening weekend is one of the more curious disconnects in 1980s comedy history. Most discussion centers on Chevy Chase's physical comic performance and Harold Ramis's pacing, with the comedy-of-humiliation formula either landing as reliably funny or feeling like a one-note exercise.
“a confident humor and throwaway style that helps sustain the laughs – of which there are quite a few”
Janet Maslin·The New York Times
“an enjoyable trip through familiar comedy landscapes”
Variety
“There are two, maybe three, good gags [in the film] which is otherwise poorly paced, sloppily put together and full of inept, ill-conceived performances”
Larry Kart·Chicago Tribune
“An exercise in the comedy of humiliation which is the stuff of shamefaced giggles”
Richard Rayner·Time Out
Genres
Adventure, Comedy
Cast & Crew
DirectorHarold Ramis
StarringChevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid
ComposerRalph Burns
National Lampoon's Vacation
National Film Registry
Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
What critics thought
A film that split critics sharply at release and has only grown more lopsided with time — original reviewers were genuinely divided, with some finding it sloppily constructed and smug, while the film has since built an overwhelming critical reputation as one of the defining screwball comedies of the 1980s. The gap between that later critical warmth and the notably cool audience reception it got on opening weekend is one of the more curious disconnects in 1980s comedy history. Most discussion centers on Chevy Chase's physical comic performance and Harold Ramis's pacing, with the comedy-of-humiliation formula either landing as reliably funny or feeling like a one-note exercise.
“a confident humor and throwaway style that helps sustain the laughs – of which there are quite a few”
Janet Maslin·The New York Times
“an enjoyable trip through familiar comedy landscapes”
Variety
“There are two, maybe three, good gags [in the film] which is otherwise poorly paced, sloppily put together and full of inept, ill-conceived performances”
Larry Kart·Chicago Tribune
“An exercise in the comedy of humiliation which is the stuff of shamefaced giggles”
Richard Rayner·Time Out
Genres
Adventure, Comedy
Cast & Crew
DirectorHarold Ramis
StarringChevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid
ComposerRalph Burns
Rent/Purchase