Christmas Vacation (1989)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, Randy Quaid

The Griswold's are back in the third movie in the Vacation series of movies. Unlike the previous movies which were focused on the families outings that turn out to be hilarious disasters, this movie focuses on the Griswold's staying at home for a good and old fashioned way of celebrating the holidays. Clark (Chase) has a certain way of celebrating Christmas that is stuck inside his head. This includes going into the forest and chopping down the 'perfect' Christmas tree, lighting up the entire house with 25,000 twinkling bulbs and inviting the family over to spend some time with them and have a family feast. Although Clark's wife, Ellen (D'Angelo) and children, Rusty (Galecki) and Audrey (Lewis) are not quite in favor of Clarke's ideas, mostly because of their horrible outcome, they have no choice but to play along. When the guests, some invited and some uninvited, come along for Christmas celebrations, it culminates into a hilarious bringing together of a lot unfortunate events. The movie is thankfully an improvement from the second movie but not as funny as the first movie was. A good entertainer that will help you kill time with the family but there is nothing more to it at all. Maybe some more outright humour that would make you roll over is something that this movie needs, but it would do in it's current state nonetheless.

Thumbs up: Decent family entertainer

Thumbs down: Needs more outright humour

Rating:  6.5/10