National Lampoon’s Vacation, 1983.
Directed by Harold Ramis.
Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, Christie Brinkley, and Anthony Michael Hall.
SYNOPSIS:
Summer has officially started in the northern hemisphere, so let’s revisit National Lampoon’s Vacation, an early 80s classic that’s debuting on 4K Ultra HD as part of Warner Bros.’ 100-year celebration. A code for a digital copy is included, but there’s only one bonus feature, a group commentary track, as opposed to previous Blu-rays that had much more than that.
Most kids are out of school and many families are planning summertime getaways, so why not revisit the 1983 classic National Lampoon’s Vacation on 4K Ultra HD? The second-best movie in the batch of 70s and 80s films featuring the famous magazine’s moniker, this one was written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis, with Chevy Chase in the lead role.
The plot is simple and episodic: Chase’s Clark Griswold character has planned a major two-week family vacation involving driving from Chicago to Los Angeles and spending a few days at Walley World (a thinly disguised Disneyland, of course).
Of course, everything starts going wrong, starting with the local car dealership convincing him to take delivery of a station wagon he didn’t order. There’s one mishap after another, and the situation gets even worse when they stop to visit relatives and end up taking Aunt Edna and her mean dog dinky with them so they can drop her off in Arizona.
If you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen this one, I won’t spoil the rest for you, except to say that the story is a great example of ratcheting up your protagonists’ problems until there seems to be no way out of their predicament.
Beverly D’Angelo plays Clark’s long-suffering wife Ellen while Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron play the couple’s kids and veteran comic actress Imogene Coca portrays Aunt Edna. Randy Quaid, John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Brian Doyle-Murray have small roles while Christie Brinkley makes her acting debut as a woman who drives a red Ferrari and has a crush on Clark.
Sure, a supermodel flirting with Clark doesn’t seem very realistic, but, like a lot of comedies of that era, you need a healthy dose of disbelief to go along with the story’s various twists and turns. If you can do that (I’ve never had a problem with it, but, then again, I grew up in the 70s and 80s), then you’ll have a blast with National Lampoon’s Vacation, which spawned a series of sequels that never quite lived up to the charm of this one.
This is one of those movies that’s been on pretty much every home theater format in existence, and now it’s arrived on 4K UltraHD as part of Warner Bros.’ 100-year anniversary celebration. The back of the case boasts a new restoration for this edition. I haven’t owned any previous releases of this movie, so I can’t compare, say, the recent Blu-rays to this one, but it looks great.
Speaking of Blu-rays, Warner Bros. decided only to include a 4K Ultra HD disc and a code for a digital copy, which means the lone bonus feature is a group commentary track that’s been kicking around for a while. Previous Blu-rays had much more in the extras department, including an 84-minute making-of documentary.
It’s been pretty standard in recent years for 4K Ultra HD releases of older films to include one of the previously released Blu-rays. Even if the high-def disc doesn’t have a restored copy of the film, at least it typically has all the older bonus features. Not sure why Warner Bros. didn’t go that route here.
The commentary track is a group one featuring Harold Ramis, Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, and producer Matty Simmons. Ramis dominates the chat, which makes sense since he was the director, and while there are some bits of silence, it never falls into the “let’s chat about whatever” trap that group tracks sometimes fall victim to.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
Originally published June 24, 2023. Updated April 22, 2024.
