My mother loves this film but I had no real interest in seeing it until it was available on YouTube and decided to give it a try. Disappointing is an understatement. I love the original Vacation film and have a very tenuous affection for the sequel, but this feels like something you'd see as a made-for-tv movie. Every sight gag is painfully obvious,especially one in which involves Clark lubricating the underside of a metal sled which then shoots across an absurd stretch of land. It is like something out of a bad cartoon. I doubt that it evoked a single laugh. It does have one genuinely moving moment between Clark and one of Cousin Eddie's children. It was sweet and sad and its emotions were sincere without having to be sappy or cheap manipulation on the audience. Had there been more of these heartfelt moments it might have been a better film. But we just get tired jokes at the expense of old people and sequences that are ridiculous. The original Vacation film had its silly moments but everything was grounded in some degree of reality. Being now a year since seeing Christmas Vacation I have very little memory of it and it didn't inspire me to want to see it again. My mother probably had her own personal reasons for enjoying the film but as an objective viewer it did little for me.
Review of Christmas Vacation
