Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher is a newspaper reporter being offered a large sum to off a cancerous millionaire, but is on the run, risking his job and finding clues when it's clear the man is healthy.
Director:
Michael Ritchie
Stars:
Chevy Chase,
Joe Don Baker,
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson
The Griswold family are on a quest. A quest to a Walley World theme park for a family vacation, but things aren't going to go exactly as planned, especially when Clark Griswold is losing all thought towards a mysterious blonde in a red Ferrari.Written by
FilmFanUK
Chevy Chase appears in some scenes wearing a blue Chicago Bears ball cap. He wears the same Chicago Bears cap throughout all four Vacation movies. See more »
Goofs
When the Griswolds fall asleep in the car, Clark awakes to see the predicament they're in. When his car is apparently in DRIVE, the car goes in REVERSE without stopping and/or changing gears. See more »
Quotes
Clark Griswald:
Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.
See more »
Crazy Credits
In the credits the title of the Ramones song "Blitzkrieg Bop" is misspelled as "Blitzkreig Bop" See more »
Alternate Versions
When aired on Comedy Central, these scenes were deleted and/or altered.
When Clark asks a pimp for directions and he tells Clark a dirty response was cut.
Clark and Ellen's conversation in the car about what they did during a trip to Florida in college was cut and just lead to Clark saying "the damn wheel's all screwed up".
Ellen coming out of the shower now shows her buttoning up her shirt where in the video release, her breasts were visible, but not here.
The scene where Dale shows Rusty his stack of nudie books "this high" was cut, as was the scene where Vickie showed Audrey her shoe box of weed, including the part where Vickie gives Audrey a few joints before letting her in the Truckster.
After Clark forgot to untie Dinky from the bumper and the cop found out, his response of "explain this you son of a bitch" was changed to "explain this you sedistic bum".
The scene where Clark and the family pull into a cafe that delivers food to the car and Clark takes the tray, hits it against the window and drops it onto the pavement was cut.
When Clark trots through the desert, the watcher's comment of "what an asshole" was changed to "what an airhead".
Clark's speech of the trip to Walley World was now a quest was altered to remove the words 'fuck' and 'assholes' and 'shit'.
The scene where they have just left Chicago and Clark sings "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was cut and just lead to the scene at the gas station where Clark tried to find the gas tank.
And the original song that plays whenever Christine Brinkley drove by was changed to "I'm so excited" in all encounters, except when the family is eating at a picnic and Clark spots her at a truck stop.
When aired on Fox Family, all profanities including 'hell' and damn' were removed and some scenes not in the above version were still intact and some were intact but altered.
Every summer Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip. This year he went too far.
Chevy Chase stars as Clark Griswold, the typical American businessman. Well, almost a basic businessman. He works in food preservatives. Beverly D'Angelo plays his wife, Anthony Michael Hall plays Rusty, his teenage son, and Dana Barron plays his daughter Audrey . This summer, Clark has decided to go all out and take a vacation with his family to "Walley World," a theme park spoof on Disney World, owned by "Roy Walley".
Basically, this film starts out strong and ends strong. There are many gut grabbing scenes, and the film never resorts to gross out humor. The biggest gross out is when Clark bites into a sandwich a dog leaked on, but that's a different story.
Along the way to Walley World, everything and everything that can go wrong does, and Clark ends up with Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca), who adds more fun to this wallop of a comedy.
The laughter just escalates more and more as we see Clark's dreams flush down the toilet farther and farther, and I can't tell you how much I laughed at some of the scenes.
"Vacation" isn't typical National Lampoon fare.
Chevy Chase gives by far his best performance (akthough he acts just as well in "Christmas Vacation") as Clark, a real optimist, go get'm kind of guy, who completely snaps toward the end of the film. The rest of the cast does well, and Beverly D'Angelo does surprisingly well as a house wife. The two children, Audrey and Rusy, squawk at each other, but not to the point of obnoxious, which is another good thing about this film.
Is it no surprise that John Hughes, the king writer/director of the 80's comedy films wrote this, or that Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, Striped, Analyze This) directed the film?
With cameos by the likes of John Candy, Eugene Levy, Brian Doyle Murray (who played Clark's boss in "Christmas Vacation"), and more, "Vacation" is a comedic triumph of the eighties that is now an icon of how to make a good comedy.
4.5/5 stars --
John Ulmer
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Every summer Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip. This year he went too far.
Chevy Chase stars as Clark Griswold, the typical American businessman. Well, almost a basic businessman. He works in food preservatives. Beverly D'Angelo plays his wife, Anthony Michael Hall plays Rusty, his teenage son, and Dana Barron plays his daughter Audrey . This summer, Clark has decided to go all out and take a vacation with his family to "Walley World," a theme park spoof on Disney World, owned by "Roy Walley".
Basically, this film starts out strong and ends strong. There are many gut grabbing scenes, and the film never resorts to gross out humor. The biggest gross out is when Clark bites into a sandwich a dog leaked on, but that's a different story.
Along the way to Walley World, everything and everything that can go wrong does, and Clark ends up with Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca), who adds more fun to this wallop of a comedy.
The laughter just escalates more and more as we see Clark's dreams flush down the toilet farther and farther, and I can't tell you how much I laughed at some of the scenes.
"Vacation" isn't typical National Lampoon fare.
Chevy Chase gives by far his best performance (akthough he acts just as well in "Christmas Vacation") as Clark, a real optimist, go get'm kind of guy, who completely snaps toward the end of the film. The rest of the cast does well, and Beverly D'Angelo does surprisingly well as a house wife. The two children, Audrey and Rusy, squawk at each other, but not to the point of obnoxious, which is another good thing about this film.
Is it no surprise that John Hughes, the king writer/director of the 80's comedy films wrote this, or that Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, Striped, Analyze This) directed the film?
With cameos by the likes of John Candy, Eugene Levy, Brian Doyle Murray (who played Clark's boss in "Christmas Vacation"), and more, "Vacation" is a comedic triumph of the eighties that is now an icon of how to make a good comedy.
4.5/5 stars --
John Ulmer