Who hasn’t been on a vacation from Hell? I don’t think I’ve met a single person whose family hasn’t gone on a trip with the best of intentions without something going wrong. Either they lost their car keys, forgot their airline tickets, or were imprisoned in Turkey and sentenced to 20 years for trying to smuggle hashish. Regardless of the incident, in general it’s something that nearly everyone can relate to. In National Lampoon’s Vacation, some things tend to go wrong on the Griswold’s family vacation. “Some things” being the summation of every wrong thing that has happened to everyone you ever knew on every vacation they ever took – and all at the same time.

There might be all of three people out there that haven't seen National Lampoon’s Vacation, the first (and best, in my opinion) of the series. For those select few, here’s the dealie-o. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) gets two weeks off from work and decides to take his family to Wally World (a Disneyland knock-off, not a synonym for Wal-Mart that many lame-fuck 30-somethings use today.)

Along the way, the Griswolds’ hit every possible obstacle. They are sold the wrong car by a shifty Eugene Levy. Their hubcaps are stolen when they take a wrong turn through Detroit. We witness the family’s first cinematic meeting with Cousin Eddie’s family, who return in future films. Their car is driven off a closed road and flies 50 yards, they kill a dog out of neglect, their aunt dies… and that ain’t the half of it. Throughout all the slapstick, crude jokes, Beverly D’Angelo’s nude shower scene, Christie Brinkley’s wish-they-were-nude scenes, and Chase’s absolute desperation, the audience couldn’t possibly have a better time. I know I sure didn’t.

Even the crew involved in the picture was pitch perfect. Harold Ramis is one of those unsung comedy directors. He’s known more for his acting and writing, but nearly everything he has done has made me laugh, and Vacation is no exception. The script was written by John Hughes, the same John Hughes that went on to direct every single great teen movie of the 1980s – including the greatest, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – before disappearing from the camera and reverting back to writing. When you put two men of this caliber together, you pretty much can’t go wrong. I think it’s this reason that the rest of the series (with the exception of Christmas Vacation) pretty much falls flat.

I believe I first taped Vacation off of HBO sometime in the mid-80s. I’m quite positive that it was HBO, and I am quite positive that my parents weren’t paying for it. I used to watch Vacation all the time. Whenever the Nintendo wouldn’t work… Vacation. Whenever it was too hot to play basketball… Vacation. Thankfully, due to its accessibility, and my own parent's neglect, I developed an appreciation for ‘80s’ comedies years before I would have otherwise. I owe everything I am to HBO, Cinemax and single-parenting.

Looking back on it now, as an adult I don’t think I remember the film being so crude. Either that or I just didn’t get some of the more off-color jokes at the time. It hardly matters though, because it still stands as one of the classic comedies of the time, and Chevy Chase has never been funnier (although you could make a case for Fletch). You can also laugh at an extremely young Anthony Michael Hall and his hair before he blows his locker to bits in The Breakfast Club.

Unrelated to the film itself, Vacation is also noteable in that it has the best ever movie poster for a comedy. Boris… that was genius.

DVD Presentation
A huge improvement over the original release’s transfer (not that I’ve seen that release, but it’s Pan-and-Scan, and thusly can fuck right off) this anamorphic widescreen presentation looks really good. It still has a little bit of a washed look that many 80s comedies suffer from, but it doesn’t really bother anything and it is certainly the best that Vacation has looked on home-video in any format. The sound mix is Mono, so don’t expect anything too exciting, but it isn’t like you will be yearning for “Holiday Road” to come at you from five different speakers. Warner has certainly prepared this DVD for as many markets as possible, so in case this DVD ends up in the hands of the Portuguese, there is an audio track for them (as well as Spanish, and French) and subtitles are available in all four languages as well.

And the Extras Are?
Introduction by Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid and Producer Matty Simmons – (0:44) - An extremely short intro that is essentially worthless. It would actually have been more interesting if it was stapled on to the beginning of the film. Either way, after you watch it once, you will never come back to it again. It just further illustrates how Chevy Chase is no longer funny. Not a goddamned bit.

Feature-length Griswold Family audio commentary by Chase, Quaid, Simmons, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron and Director Harold Ramis – - Wow, this is a really fun commentary. All the participants are assembled together so there is a lot of bantering back and forth between people that haven’t seen each other in years. Ramis is particularly informative (although he queerly often refers to Chase as if he wasn’t there. I expect he added more material to the commentary after the fact). Fans will seriously love this track.

Family Truckster – Featurette Gallery – - This is rather fun. This is a kind of hunt-and-seek for six selectable objects on the screen. When you find them, they each take you to a different mini-featurette. You learn things like how Christie Brinkley just sat around all day until she was called on. You’ll learn why the actress that played Audrey didn’t return in the sequels. My favorite though, is the origins of the station wagon. Oh, it should also be noted that Brinkley is still babe-o-licious, but I still hate her for breaking Billy Joel’s heart. Floozy.

Theatrical Trailer – Your typical ‘80s’ comedy trailer. It does its job, had I seen this in theatres, I would have wanted to see the movie.

There’s also some Cast and Crew listing, which is redundant seeing as how the film actually has credits.

So what’s missing? There is apparently an alternate ending, which was filmed but tested poorly. It would have been nice to include this. They even discuss this in the commentary. -1 pant for such an unforgivable exclusion. Otherwise, what is included is perfect.

The Bottom Line
I couldn’t tell you the amount of times that I’ve watched National Lampoon’s Vacation. I know I watched it years before I should have, and it (along with another '80s staple, Revenge Of The Nerds) probably has been instrumental in turning me into the sarcastic, immature, and occasionally funny bastard that I have become. Of all things though, it practically defines summer and road trips like no other, just as Christmas Vacation defines Christmas. If you haven’t seen Vacation in a while, you owe it to yourself to revisit it and laugh hysterically once again, and this DVD is the best way to do this.

RANDOM TRIVIA: The house that the Griswolds carry the dead grandmother past was three houses down from the very first house in Arizona that I lived in. I think it’s the only time that actual rain was ever filmed in Arizona’s film history. I should do tours.