National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

The “Vacation” films with Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold are a mixed batch: “European” and “Vegas” are trash. The first “Vacation” is wonderful, and I adore “Christmas Vacation.” Here, the Griswolds stay home while parents, great aunts and cousins visit. Utter fantastic, wonderfully funny mayhem ensues. I love Chase in these films, he has the gleam of a hap-hap-happy psychopath in his eyes, one bent on not murder but fatherly perfection. But it’s Randy Quaid who walks away with the film as a redneck from hell, with an RV and raccoon-eyed children in tow. “Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!” he says to yuppie neighbors as he empties a chemical toilet into a street sewer grate. Priceless. Penned by John Hughes in his glory days, this reminds us that family can be hell, but we all need a little hell now and then. A