National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
Directed by Harold Ramis
Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
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What critics compared National Lampoon's Vacation to
Sunshine embraces the well-paved comedy road-trip structure with more than one rip-off, er, homage to the classic National Lampoon's Vacation.
Little Miss Sunshine brings to mind one of those National Lampoon's Vacation movies, except this time the family is much more realistic and the tone much darker.
There's even a lengthy sequence that's stolen from "National Lampoon's Vacation" and doesn't fit in this movie at all.
But here we have Little Miss Sunshine, which might aptly be described as "dysfunctional family hits the road," or in other words: National Lampoon's Vacation meets The Squid and the Whale .
I had to miss Sundance this year, so I'm just catching up with Sunshine, which one of its few Sundance naysayers described to me as National Lampoon's Vacation for people who think they're too smart for National Lampoon's Vacation.
Think too much about it, and you’ll realize that in its outline, it’s not exactly full of nothing we haven’t seen before (in fact, it’s kinda an indie-flavored spin on National Lampoon’s Vacation!).
Now that the legal demonization of marijuana use is slowly eroding, why not a middle-class answer to a stoner comedy that pays homage to "National Lampoon's Vacation" and extolls the virtues of family life?
The result owes a lot to such classic comedies as "The Great Outdoors," "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and, especially, "National Lampoon's Vacation," in which Chevy Chase reminds his kids, "Getting there is half the fun."
An affable if only passably funny effort that reunites Jason Sudeikis with his Horrible Bosses co-star Jennifer Aniston, We’re the Millers rides much the same highway as National Lampoon’s Vacation did in an earlier era of raunchy road comedies.
The premise is a brilliant modern take on National Lampoon’s Vacation with a raunchier edge and a creative spin on the family road trip formula.
Think “National Lampoon’s Vacation” retooled for the “Hangover” generation and you’ll have a good idea of what “We’re the Millers” is like.
They manage to pick up the weed without much difficulty, actually, but the trouble comes after, in the kinds of obstacles that are familiar from every family-adventure comedy from The Out-of-Towners to National Lampoon's Vacation.
He is the suburban black man who operates like the classic National Lampoon’s Vacation dad, trying to get the family to enjoy their vacation but on his terms.
His self-depreciating humour makes the family likeable and characterises Us as a warped, gothic version of National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983).
Leaning into the ’80s tone of the film, Duke created an iconic dad ala Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Vacation .
The action-oriented, guns-blasting climax taking place at Pacific Playland is also loads of fun, like the ending of 1983's "National Lampoon's Vacation" if the Griswalds had to contend with blasting away swarms of zombies while partaking in the thrill rides.
They start with a premise that sounds like a horror-comedy remake of National Lampoon's Vacation.
During a pit stop, they are duped by a pair of female grifters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), with whom they eventually strike up an uneasy alliance and whom they escort to Los Angeles, to visit Pacific Playland - a sort of post-apocalyptic Walley World for you "National Lampoon's Vacation" fans - and a movie star's palatial mansion (the owner is played to the hilt in a surprise cameo by, well, it's supposed to be a surprise).
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Demonstrating an attitude to the quaintness of European transport that would not seem out of place on National Lampoon’s Vacation, Baumbach propels her into a tiny lift with a muddy A4 window and up to a borrowed apartment, where she stares hopelessly at a copy of A la Recherche du temps Perdu.
It doesn't help, certainly, that Dougherty and cowriters Todd Casey and Zach Shields offer up an obnoxious roster of supporting characters that make Randy Quaid's National Lampoon's Vacation brood look subtle and restrained by comparison, with the viewer's inability to work up an ounce of sympathy for or interest in these people ensuring that it becomes awfully difficult to care once they begin fending for their lives.
Conflict and mishaps can arise – out of nowhere – and for reference and commiseration, watch “National Lampoon’s Vacation” as a form of therapy.
It starts to resemble a Benny Hill sketch or something out of National Lampoon’s Vacation.
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Think National Lampoon’s Vacation, but with severed heads and Boyd Holbrook as a metal-armed militant.
As with the Chevy Chase-starring "National Lampoon's Vacation" series, particularly 1989's raucous "Christmas Vacation" (which this film closely resembles in many ways), everything that could possibly self-destruct for Greg, does.