You know exactly what you're getting in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: another goofball, slapstick comedy of chaos and catastrophe with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and family. This time,... read more

You know exactly what you're getting in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: another goofball, slapstick comedy of chaos and catastrophe with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and family. This time, there's no traveling involved: Clark and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) prepare for a nice Christmas with the kids (played by none other than Juliette Lewis and Roseanne star Johnny Galecki), when their home is invaded by backwoods cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his brood, along with assorted other crazy and/or stuffy relatives. Complications, of course, are inevitable. The film is preceded by National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and followed by National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation (1997). Directed by Jeremiah Chechik, who went on to do Benny & Joon and the Sharon Stone remake of Diabolique. --Jim Emerson (hide)

Gregory McDonald's lightweight mystery novel about an undercover newspaper reporter cracking a police drug ring is transformed by screenwriter Andrew Bergman (Blazing Saddles, and writer/director of The Freshman... read more

Gregory McDonald's lightweight mystery novel about an undercover newspaper reporter cracking a police drug ring is transformed by screenwriter Andrew Bergman (Blazing Saddles, and writer/director of The Freshman and Honeymoon in Vegas) into a fairly sarcastic and occasionally very funny Chevy Chase vehicle. Enjoyment of the film pivots on whether you find Chase's flippant, smart-ass brand of verbal humor funny, or merely egocentric. If you don't like Chase, there's really no one else worth watching (Geena Davis is sadly underused). Chase seems born to play I.M. "Fletch" Fletcher, a disillusioned investigative reporter whose cynicism and detached view on life mirrors the actor's understated approach to comedy. Fletcher offers Chase the opportunity to adopt numerous personas, as his job requires numerous (bad) physical disguises, and much of film's humor centers on the ridiculous idea that any of these phony accents or bad hairpieces could fool anyone. These not-so-clever disguises are put to use when Fletch becomes involved in the film's smart but continually self-mocking two-part mystery. As well as trying to gather drug-smuggling evidence against the LAPD for a long-overdue newspaper story, a rich and apparently terminally ill stranger also offers Fletch a large payoff to kill him. While the film does a fairly good job juggling both of these plots, not to mention tossing in a love interest as well, it's subservient, for better or worse, to Chase's memorable one-liners and disguises. Followed by two forgettable sequels that lack both the original's wit and Chase's attention span. --Dave McCoy (hide)

The greenskeeper is about to start World War III - against a gopher. The judge plays to win but his nubile niece has her mind set on scoring... read more

The greenskeeper is about to start World War III - against a gopher. The judge plays to win but his nubile niece has her mind set on scoring her own way. The playboy shoots perfect golf by pretending he is the ball. And the country club loudmouth just doubled a $20,000 bet on a 10-foot putt. Insanity? No. Caddyshack. Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight and Bill Murray tee off for a side-splitting round of fairway foolishness that does for golf what Animal House did for college fraternities and Police Academy did for law enforcement. (hide)

Check your brain at the door, because it's time once again for a dim-witted visit to Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his happy-go-lucky family, who hit the Vegas... read more

Check your brain at the door, because it's time once again for a dim-witted visit to Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his happy-go-lucky family, who hit the Vegas strip for this vacation. (The kids who originally played the Griswold children have been replaced.) The Griswold exploits in the casinos are good for a few embarrassed chuckles, especially when Mrs. Griswold (Beverly D'Angelo) gets onstage with Wayne Newton for a truly mind-altering rendition of Minnie Ripperton's ear-piercing 1970s hit "Loving You." And because he scored so many low-brow points as the lame-brained cousin in the original National Lampoon's Vacation, Randy Quaid is back to cause a lot of trouble, while Chevy Chase is reduced to uninspired slapstick and endless puns involving the word damn. In other words, Vegas Vacation is the kind of comedy that can convince you that civilization is doomed. --Jeff Shannon (hide)

You know exactly what you're getting in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: another goofball, slapstick comedy of chaos and catastrophe with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and family. This time,... read more

You know exactly what you're getting in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: another goofball, slapstick comedy of chaos and catastrophe with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and family. This time, there's no traveling involved: Clark and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) prepare for a nice Christmas with the kids (played by none other than Juliette Lewis and Roseanne star Johnny Galecki), when their home is invaded by backwoods cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his brood, along with assorted other crazy and/or stuffy relatives. Complications, of course, are inevitable. The film is preceded by National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and followed by National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation (1997). Directed by Jeremiah Chechik, who went on to do Benny & Joon and the Sharon Stone remake of Diabolique. --Jim Emerson (hide)

Yet another bad movie in a lengthy string of losers for all three of the principals involved here: director John Landis and stars Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase.... read more

Yet another bad movie in a lengthy string of losers for all three of the principals involved here: director John Landis and stars Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase. Chase and Aykroyd play a pair of bumbling would-be CIA agents who are spotted cheating on the entrance exam. So the CIA decides to use them as bait in a mission to flummox the Russians. Lots of pointless slapstick and mugging, but Landis hasn't made a genuinely funny film since Trading Places. Aykroyd and Chase seem smug and self-satisfied (don't they always?), as though they can rest forever on laurels earned during the 1975 season of Saturday Night Live. Look for a gaggle of film directors (Terry Gilliam, Joel Coen, Costa-Gavras) in cameo roles: that's the closest this film comes to cleverness. --Marshall Fine (hide)

George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) directed this 1988 comedy that gives star Chevy Chase one of his better-quality vehicles. Chase plays a New York... read more

George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) directed this 1988 comedy that gives star Chevy Chase one of his better-quality vehicles. Chase plays a New York sportswriter who turns to the country for a simpler, happier way of living. He discovers, of course, that things don't work out that way. Hill's usual touch with comic timing, tone, and dialogue give Chase a rare career opportunity to be part of something a little classier than most of his other movies; but Funny Farm nevertheless has its share of so-what gags. Still, the film's overall tone is winning and laid-back, and it makes for nice escapist fare. --Tom Keogh (hide)

Three Western stars (Martin Short, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase) from Hollywood silent films go to Mexico for what they assume will be a publicity appearance, and find they've... read more

Three Western stars (Martin Short, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase) from Hollywood silent films go to Mexico for what they assume will be a publicity appearance, and find they've actually been summoned to fight a local bandit. John Landis directed this 1986 comedy with self-conscious artifice, and it's hard to get into his self-congratulatory joke. Even the three main stars, brilliant comics all, can't sustain anything funny in it. --Tom Keogh (hide)

An original Neil Simon screenplay makes Seems Like Old Times rise above what would otherwise be a forgettable comedy love triangle. Goldie Hawn (Private Benjamin) plays a good-hearted... read more

An original Neil Simon screenplay makes Seems Like Old Times rise above what would otherwise be a forgettable comedy love triangle. Goldie Hawn (Private Benjamin) plays a good-hearted defense lawyer married to Ira, a politically ambitious district attorney played by Charles Grodin (Midnight Run). The craziness of their everyday lives becomes even more ridiculous when ex-husband Chevy Chase is framed for a bank robbery and seeks refuge with the woman he could never get over. Hawn hides the love of her life under her husband's nose as Chase tries to clear his name. Hawn tries to protect him and Grodin just tries to keep from going insane. A slapstick romance that's very often hit-and-miss, the dialogue saves this comic farce and provides wonderful moments between the three stars. Seems Like Old Times also has going for it winning supporting players and some half a dozen drooling, unruly dogs. --Robert Lane (hide)

After winning a tour package in a game show, the bickering Griswald family carve a trail of destruction through England (where they knock over Stonehenge), France, Germany, and... read more

After winning a tour package in a game show, the bickering Griswald family carve a trail of destruction through England (where they knock over Stonehenge), France, Germany, and Italy. Somehow Ellen (Bevery D'Angelo), the mom, gets kidnapped by gangsters, leading to a car chase that reunites the family, despite their differences. It's hard to believe that National Lampoon's European Vacation is only the second of the Vacation movies; it has the exhausted pallor of the last of a long series of sequels, drained of all zest or original ideas. The charmless smirk of Chevy Chase, mechanical in its idiocy, hangs over European Vacation like a death mask. It's hard to believe that this hack was once the funny and sexy hero of Foul Play. D'Angelo keeps her chin up and gives the movie whatever class it may have; she deserves better. --Bret Fetzer (hide)

Not short on murder, mayhem, or any other screwball '70s conventions, Foul Play is a wonderful vehicle for Goldie Hawn. She plays Gloria, a librarian "ready to take... read more

Not short on murder, mayhem, or any other screwball '70s conventions, Foul Play is a wonderful vehicle for Goldie Hawn. She plays Gloria, a librarian "ready to take a chance again," who ends up the target of an assassination ring. Chevy Chase, fresh off of Saturday Night Live, does the closest thing to real acting he would ever achieve (okay, maybe Fletch) as Tony, the cop assigned to protect Gloria. Dudley Moore made an indelible impression on American audiences as Stanley Tibbets, a surprisingly kinky symphony conductor. But it's the quirky things that make this film: the grandmothers playing Scrabble with expletives, Burgess Meredith's snake Esme, the old Japanese couple in the back of the careening limo. From the opening credits with Barry Manilow crooning the title song, this is a fond trip down memory lane. --Keith Simanton (hide)