Aidan At The Movies: October 2015

I love this poster!

Buckle your seat belts, because we're going on a wild trip full of laughs as I review this classic comedy masterpiece, the original "National Lampoon's Vacation". Starring Chevy Chase (Caddyshack and Saturday Night Live), Beverly D'Angelo , Randy Quaid, Imogene Coca (yes, Sid Ceaser's partner), the late John Candy (SCTV and Uncle Buck), and a young Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club). This is pure comedy gold we're looking at, people. Based on a short story published in National Lampoon Magazine by the late John Hughes (before he got into the movie industry).
The Griswold family have planned all year for a great summer vacation. From their suburban Chicago home, across America, to the wonders of Walley World Fun Park in California. (Similar to Disneyland). Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase) had planned the trip very carefully, except for uhh... a few hundred hysterical screw ups, for example letting a sour relative (Imogene Coca) tag along for the ride until they reach Phoenix, and losing lots of money after getting their new car wrecked. But, what keeps Clark's eyes on the road is a flirtation with a mysterious attractive blonde in a red Ferrari (Christine Brinkley). What else could go wrong? Will they get to Walley World and have a blast before summer's over? As always, I won't tell you what happens at the end, you just have to see for yourself.
Comedy genius! I laughed a whole lot while watching this for the first time. Not to mention that there were lots of surprises. I loved the part when they made that 50 yard jump in the desert. For the most part, I loved the comedy in this, because you hardly see humor like this in movies anymore. Now everything is just jokes about sex and potty humor.
I don't know if I should consider this a family movie, because it's rated R. But, of all that, I give this movie a thumbs up!

PARENTS GUIDE: Like I said, this movie is rated R. There are some scenes where Clark and Ellen "doing it" in bed. Like in one scene in a motel, Clark turns on a vibrator on the bed. They get interrupted by the kids with Clark holding Ellen's bra in his hand. And there is a scene where Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) and his cousin were looking at Playboy magazines. There is some violence, like some car crashes (just for laughs), Clark using a BB gun, and a scene when Clark found out that he tied Aunt Edna's dog to the rear bumper of the car. ): And there were some scenes where Audrey was smoking pot.

DID YOU KNOW: The opening scene at the Chicago car dealership was filmed at Star Ford in Glendale, California. The location is still there (as of 2014) with the same buildings that were in the movie. However, Star Ford moved down the street and the former Star Ford is now Glendale Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership. In the scene where the car vaults off the closed road, Rusty says to Clark "Gee, Dad, you must've jump this thing about 50 yards!". The crew had made a bet off camera as to whether the car would travel more than 50 feet, which it did. The St. Louis inner city and the Dodge City main street were created and filmed on the Warner Brothers' studio back lot. The poster art was by fantasy illustrator Boris Vallejo and is a parody of the poster art for Conan the Barbarian. Imogene Coca almost turned down the role to play Aunt Edna, because she was afraid to play such a mean character. She was even concerned to everyone while filming her scenes.