Christmas Vacation

The Griswold family’s plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.

• Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
• Genre:Comedy
• Runtime:102 minutes

Cast

Chevy Chase : Clark Griswold
Beverly D’Angelo: Ellen Griswold
Juliette Lewis : Audrey Griswold
Johnny Galecki : Russell ‘Rusty’ Griswold
John Randolph : Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Sr.

The movie begins with Clark taking his family on the search for ” The Griswold Family Christmas Tree”. After aggravating nearby motorists, getting stuck under a big rig, and walking in the woods for a long time, Clark finally finds the perfect tree, only to realize that he forgot a saw. They end up pulling the entire tree out of the ground and taking it home. Clark breaks several windows and gets covered in tree sap setting it up, as it barely fits in the yard, let alone the living room.

While shopping for gifts at a downtown Chicago department store, Clark meets a saleswoman named Mary (Nicolette Scorsese). He makes a series of Freudian slips to her on their first encounter, and later fantasizes about her skinnydipping in his future pool (interrupted by his cousin-in-law’s daughter).

Clark has been working on a project at his firm which he expects will bring in a good Christmas bonus. Clark plans to use the bonus to put in a swimming pool, for which he has already placed a $7,500 deposit.

As Christmas approaches, the many members of Clark’s extended family begin arriving to stay with him. Clark’s and Ellen’s parents are the first to arrive. This drives him to go set up the lighting on the house with his son Rusty. He covers nearly every inch of the home’s exterior and yard with lights (according to Clark himself, a grand total of 25,000 Christmas lights). Clark becomes very frustrated after many attempts to get the lights working. Unknown to him, the electricity was not on to begin with. When Ellen heads to the back store room to get something, she clicks a light switch, lighting the house (and causing the power plant to switch to nuclear generators for backup power), and blinding their unfriendly yuppie neighbors. After the lights are up and running, Ellen’s cousin-in-law and cousin, Eddie and Catherine, along with their children show up to stay with him for a month, with their dilapidated, rusty RV parked in the driveway the whole time. Stifling his disappointment at their surprise arrival proves difficult for Clark. However, Clark and Ellen are concerned about Eddie’s children, as they will not have many gifts for Christmas, due to Eddie’s seven year unemployment. Later on, Clark treats Rusty, Eddie, Catherine and others to a sledding trip. Clark then adds a sheeting of a “Non-Caloric, Silicon-Based Kitchen Lubricant” that his company had made, but results in the chemical compound to shoot Clark into a Wal-Mart parking lot at about 800 mph. Read more

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