Christmas Vacation (1989)

No better than European Vacation (1985), which was pretty much dreadful.

In this installment, we have a little more physical humor, as well as some callbacks to the original. In the original Vacation (1983), they accidently killed an aunt's dog. In this one, an aunt's cat gets electrocuted chewing on the Christmas tree light wires.

Another callback is Clark (Chevy Chase) looking out the back window, imagining how nice his new swimming pool will be. Then he sees a hot girl. Maybe this fantasy sequence works if they brought back Christy Brinkley. If they couldn't get her, though, just cut the scene.

Rusty (Johnny Galecki) has some interaction with Clark, but they seem to have forgotten Audrey (Juliette Lewis). She just gets lost in the plethora of family characters. In fact, when they're busy chasing the squirrel, Audrey completely disappears. I thought, "Did she hide in her room?" I mean, I was trying to make up a reason for why she completely disappeared from the sequence. I'm sure it was not very noticeable to most viewers, or maybe even the film editor, but since everyone else appears in this scene, it didn't make sense for her not to be there.

Likewise, we have a couple of neighbors, including Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who have nothing at all meaningful to contribute.

Of the five Vacation movies this is the only one that's stuck in one location -- the Griswold house. Even Vegas Vacation (1997) has a little bit more to show, as it can move around Las Vegas. But this movie has a lot of issues, but maybe one of the more minor issues is just being locked into one location.

Rating: 1/5 stars

Comments

"Digging for the Truth" Experiment #4 -- The Federalist Radio Hour

I first heard of Sean Davis last week. He created an online magazine called The Federalist in 2011, and he currently has about 500,000 followers on X. It was about last week that he posted something amazing. He suggested if the Supreme Court doesn't rule the way they should, not only should Trump just ignore the ruling, if they keep obstructing the administration, he should just dissolve the Court altogether. And I thought, wow. This guy is saying outrageous stuff like that, and there's an audience for it. So, I decided I'd listen to an episode of The Federalist podcast: April 17, 2025 -- Deportation, Due Process, and Deference to the American People (40 minutes) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deportation-due-process-and-deference-to-the/id983782306?i=1000703904873 In the 40-minute conversation, the host and guest discussed why due process wasn't required for illegal immigrants. The case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was mentioned for a brief second, but...

In Utero

In 1994, I wore my In Utero shirt to college. I’d walk down the hall, and people would look at the shirt. I still remember a professor looking at it, not apparently hip to the scene. She asked, “Bret, is there something you’re trying to tell us?” I had no idea what I was trying to say. Kurt Cobain had just shot his head off with a shotgun. Before that life-changing event, I hadn’t been the biggest fan of Nirvana, but I did recognize the immediate impact “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had on music, or at least on MTV. Nirvana had seemingly killed and buried Hair Metal, and they had done it single-handedly. What exactly was this “Alternative” sound? It was weird, because soon it felt like everything was “alternative,” and that didn’t make any sense. Once everything is the same, how can it be anything but standard, normal? Nirvana was okay, but at least at the time I was wearing the merch, I was much more into Offspring and Green Day and Tool. And that’s about as far as I went into...

I Must Betray You -- Ruta Sepetys

I appreciate the pacing. The author's epilogue includes her mission statement -- historical fiction as a way to keep history alive. Romanis is an obscure place, but she hopes people reading the book will take an interest in its history. She also makes the point that there are no clean endings. So, the evil dictator and his wife were killed, but the problems they created didn't magically go away, the country still had to find its way and move forward, and it was a process.

The Writer's Poke

Search This Blog