The Griswold family's plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.
How do you beat this? Frank Capra III helping to direct, John Hughes writing and Angelo Badalamenti on the score? There is no way these three folks could make a bad movie. Then throw in Chevy Chase, Brian Murray, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bill Hickey and Randy Quaid... you have an instant classic.
I could maybe have done without Juliette Lewis. I mean, she has her moments, but how did she get to be in this film? Being the daughter of Geoffrey Lewis? It certainly was not her work being Wayne's girlfriend on "The Wonder Years". Oh well. At least she went on to do better things.
Today, the film is considered a modern Christmas classic, and I would have to agree. It also is a strong third entry in the franchise, second only to the original. Ebert wrote, "The movie is curious in how close it comes to delivering on its material: Sequence after sequence seems to contain all the necessary material, to be well on the way toward a payoff, and then it somehow doesn't work." I have to say, I think he was wrong.
How do you beat this? Frank Capra III helping to direct, John Hughes writing and Angelo Badalamenti on the score? There is no way these three folks could make a bad movie. Then throw in Chevy Chase, Brian Murray, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bill Hickey and Randy Quaid... you have an instant classic.
I could maybe have done without Juliette Lewis. I mean, she has her moments, but how did she get to be in this film? Being the daughter of Geoffrey Lewis? It certainly was not her work being Wayne's girlfriend on "The Wonder Years". Oh well. At least she went on to do better things.
Today, the film is considered a modern Christmas classic, and I would have to agree. It also is a strong third entry in the franchise, second only to the original. Ebert wrote, "The movie is curious in how close it comes to delivering on its material: Sequence after sequence seems to contain all the necessary material, to be well on the way toward a payoff, and then it somehow doesn't work." I have to say, I think he was wrong.