NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION (1983)
4K Ultra HD + Digital HD
Label: WBHE
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 98 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HA MA with Optional English SDH, Spanish, Parisian French Subtitles
Video: HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Harold Ramis
Cast: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, Christie Brinkley, Eddie Bracken, Brian-Doyle Murray, James Keach, Eugene Levy
80's comedy classic National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) is based in a short story "Vacation '58" that was written by John Hughes (Sixteen Candles) and first appeared in the pages of “National Lampoon” magazine in '79, the film adaptation is directed by Harold Ramis (Caddyshack) and stars Chevy Chase (Spies Like Us) and Beverly D’Angelo (The Sentinel) as Clark and Ellen Griswold, parents who embark on a cross country road trip from the suburbs of Chicago to the very Disney-esque Walley World ("America's Favorite Family Fun Park") in Southern California with their oft-bickering teenage kids Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall, Sixteen Candles) and Audrey (Dana Barron, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown).
The all-American vacation seems doomed from the get-go when Clark and Rusty arrive at a car dealership to pick-up a new sporty stationwagon he purchased just for this trip, only to be swindled by a slimy salesman played by the bushy-eyebrowed comedy legend Eugene Levy (Armed and Dangerous) who sells him the zesty (re: a lemon) Wagon Queen Family Truckster, a metallic-pea green monstrosity with wood paneling and a front-end stacked with eight headlights. Hitting the road they encounter all manner of comedic diversions, getting lost in the inner-city after taking the wrong exit and having their hubcaps jacked in St. Louis, a misguided attempt to revisit sexual glories from the past with his wife in the front seat of the car while the kids sleep in the back, Clark's somnambulistic driving skills, a near catstrophic car wreck followed by a sun-scorched juant on foot throught the Southwestern desert, a motel bed with a mind of it's own; and of course Clark 's recurrent encounters with a gorgeous blonde (80's superstar model Christie Brinkley) accompanied by a cherry red Ferrari 308 GTS, with these encounters culminating in a skinny-dip excursion in a motel pool that goes all-wrong. Despite Clark's flirtations with the fantasy blonde he really is a good guy just trying to be a great dad and a decent husband, but he constantly comes up short falling flat on his face, unable to admit when he's wrong or at fault. Chase right here is at the height of his post SNL slapstick prime, his well-intentioned but comically executed plans usually fail ending in hilarity, and there's not a bad bugger in the bunch, the gags are freaking hilarious and pretty timeless.
Along the way Clark attempts to sway his family to see roadside attractions like a house of mud and big balls of twine but is reluctantly forced to make a detour to visit Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn, Vegas Vacation) and her down-on-his-luck loser husband Eddie (Randy Quaid, Last Detail), where Beverly must dodge on-the-mouth kisses from lecherous Eddie, while their kids Rusty and Audrey spend time with their cousins Vickie (Jane Krakowski, TV's 30 Rock) and Dale (John P. Navin Jr., Losin' It) smoking weed and getting a "bop the bologne" lesson while looking at nudie magazines. The Griswold's unexpectedly end-up taking grouchy old Aunt Edna (comedienne Imogene Coca) and her vicious-pisser mutt Dinky to her son's house in Phoenix, Arizona - a trip that results in her death, with Edna's corpse strapped to the luggage rack andthen unceremonious
dumping her body on her son's doorstep during a monsoon with a note pinned to her body. Edna's mangy mutt Dinky gets it's even worse in an animal-cruelty episode played for laughs in one of this film best scenes which featuring (James Keach, Evil Town) as a horrified State Trooper who has to scrape the pooch's carcass off the highway. After days on the road plagued with death and destruction Griswold family is at their rope's end with each other on this doomed road trip, but Clark pushes on, determined to have some quality together time with his family, only to arrive at Walley World and find it closed for repairs and maintenance! At the park entrance they encounter a goofy security guard (John Candy, Uncle Buck), and Clark having finally snapped resorts to holding the schmo hostage at gunpoint (with a BB gun) and forcing him to take his family on the rides. They have a great time but the place is eventually stormed by cops and we get to meet Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek) doing a terrific spin on Walt Disney, love the moustache!
It's difficult for me to be objective about this flick, it's a film my father sat me down to watch when I was about ten, he said "hey kid, watch this, you're gonna love it" - and he wasn't wrong about that, this is easily one of my favorite comedies of all-time, and every watch it is another warm and fuzzy trip down memort lane drenched in adolescent nostalgia. National Lampoon's Vacation is just an endlessly quotable comic gem that sparkles more with age, one I quote nearly weekly, and most-often it's some variation on Clark's "I don't give a frog's fat ass...." line. I loved it as a kid when I related to the kids who just couldn't find a common wavelength with their weirdo parents, and as an adult I've enjoyed it from the other side as a dad desperate to connect with his increasingly disconnected kids on a road trip from Hell, it works both ways. The comedy plays out episodically and the humor is on-point and delivers time and time again, there's not a thing I don't love about this film, it's a goofy, cynical yet secretly warm-hearted must-own and is still the best in the series, with National Lamppon's Christmas Vacation coming in a very close second.
Be aware that this is an 80's comedy and as such it's lousy with politocally incorrect humor sure to rub some the wrong way now viewed through contemprary eyes, this include unsavory racial stereotypes, derogatory use of the word "retard", and a bizarre incest joke, when cousin Vicky and Audrey exchange notes about French-kissing Vicki proudly notes that "Yeah, but Daddy says I'm the best at it" - um, what the actual fuck!?! If you are watching this with your kids keep in mind this is an R-rated film, and we get a brief bit of shower nudity from the lovely D'Angelo, which is not un-PC per se, but... nevermind, just let your kids watch it, I turned out fine!
Audio/Video: National Lampoons Vacation (1983) makes it's region-free 4K Ultra HD debut from WBHE with a nebulous "4K restoration", but as someone who watches this about twice a year I would say this is mostly likely a new scan from the OCN, it looks terrific. The film is framed in the correct 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio for the first time on home video, so that's quite nice, plus it restores the classic red and white Saul Bass WB logo at the top of the film. The fine grain levels are generally very pleasing, there might be some light DNR clean-up applied bit it's barely noticeable, and looks organic. The uptick in fine detail is quite evident in the close-ups and in textures, and the colors look reinvigorated, the blue skies and greens of grass and trees are more saturated and emphasized, reds gets a nice boost, the matte painting of Walley World looks wonderful, plus skin tones look more natural. This is just a very fine looking UHD all the way around.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. No Atmos remix for this but that is hardly surprising, its pretty rare that a low-budget 80's comedy will get the Atmos thumbs up, and this DTS 2.0 sounds just fine. The source is clean and doesn't suffer age-related issues, dialogue is clean, and the soundtrack featuring the Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop", Vangelis's "Chariots of Fore", and both Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road" and June Pointer's "Little Boy Sweet" pop-up throughout the film sound buoyant in the mix with some nice low-end. I can confirm that The Pointer Sister's "I'm So Excited" has not been re-instated, still left off due to rights issues, and I don't believe any home video versions - here in the U.S. anyway, has featured the song.
Extras, oof, let's talk about the extras - goddamn it WB, you didn't include the Blu-ray, not even a recycle of the 30th Anniversary Edition? All we get for it's 4K debut is the archival Audio Commentary with Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Matty Simmons, Harold Ramis, Anthony Michael Hall, and Dana Barron, and while it's not the greatest commentary and feels a bit cut-up with a fair amount of empty space I still enjoy it and I am glad it is included here. As stated previously this is 4K Ultra HD + Digital only, there is no Blu-ray, which means we do not get the extras that were present on the 30th anniversary Blu-ray, these include a 44-sec Introduction by Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid and Matty Simmons, the 85-min Inside Story: National Lampoon's Vacation (2011), an A&E produced feature-length documentary from the 30th Anniversary edition, nor even the 1-min Theatrical Trailer for the film. That these archival extras are not included and that we still have to hang onto the previous releases if we want the complete extras is pretty sad, and not including a Blu-ray with the new restoration is also pretty egregious in my opinion. Also not great is that when I redeemed my digital copy I noticed that on Vudu it redeemed an HDX version with the Saul Bass WB logo in the correct 1.85:1 OAR, while the Movie Anywhere was also presented in HD, not UHD, with the newer WB logo framed in the incorrect 1.78:1, it's the older inferior scan. Also, for the curious, there are no digital extras available through either Vudu or the Movies Anywhere platforms.
The 2-disc release arrives in a standard UHD keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, featuring not the iconic original illustrated movie poster artwork by Boris Vallejo, but a new postcard-styled photoshop travesty. I get that the whole postcard design which is meant to mimic the roadside postcards from the opening credits and the edging and spine that mimics the faux-wood paneling of the Family Truckster (but where's the metallic-pea?), but it's weak compared to the original artwork. That Vallejo artwork seems to be exclusive to the Steelbook edition FYI, so if you're picky about such things you might want to go that way. I'm just not a fan of these new artwork WBHE are generating for standard release version 4Ks that we've seen for The Lost Boys, Poltergeist, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange - please just go with the original artwork WB!
Special features:
- Audio Commentary with Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Matty Simmons, Harold Ramis, Anthony Michael Hall, and Dana Barron
