If you’ve never seen this it’s worth a look if only to persuade you that no matter what you personally have to contend with at Christmas, it could be so, so much worse. The tone is set when Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) heads out in to the wilderness with his wife, daughter and son, to find an ideal Christmas tree to fell for the perfect family Christmas. It goes badly right from the journey there and progresses to having to uproot the tree as no-one had remembered to bring a saw or axe to fell it. Falling prey to the common live tree purchasing problem of “it didn’t look that big when I bought it” the tree is hugely oversized for the room.
Not to be held in check by a simple faux-pas Clark moves on to covering his whole house with lights – something that, as far as I can be sure, didn’t exist in the UK until this movie was in circulation. This like all else to follow goes badly, but hilariously, and sometimes painfully so. When cousin Eddie and family appear in an RV things go from bad to worse – family tensions, the world’s driest turkey, hazardous chemical pollution, kidnapping, and more. It’s a fun-filled festive sleigh ride to mayhem and will either become an annual seasonal stable for you or one you swear off for life.
Certificate: 12
1 hour 37 min
Prime / YouTube
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Cast: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis