NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (1983)

"You'll be whistling zippity-doo-dah out of your assholes!"

In hopes of being able to spend some much needed quality time with his family, food additive designer Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), buys a new monster station wagon and sets off on a cross-country road trip to visit the world-famous Wally World amusement park in Los Angeles.  Along the way, all kinds of crazy shit happens.  Everything from visiting inbred family members and eating dog urine-marinated sandwiches to skinny dipping in a freezing swimming pool.  And let's not forget Christie Brinkley as the "Girl in the Ferrari".  God only knows how many kids busted a nut to her back in the 80's!  I know of, at least, one!

Newer audiences today will probably find NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION to be dated and lame, but as a child of the 1980's I have a soft spot for it and can't even tell you how many times I've seen it.  Dozens, easily.  Quick pace, iconic characters, quotable lines ("Yeah, but Daddy says I'm the best at it."), nice scenery, ancient electronics, 80's fashions, a stack of nudie books this high, great acting by everybody, a moose getting punched in the nose, yo mama gettin' fucked, people whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of their assholes, Eugene Levy as a car salesman, Beverly D'Angelo topless, John Candy as a security guard and probably the highlight of the film to me: a surprise appearance by Eddie Bracken!!  Just the mere sight of him brought up memories of the wedding scene in THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK and I immediately started smiling ear to ear.

Highly recommended.  An absolute must watch for anybody interested in 80's movies.

Part 2 - National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
Part 3 - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Part 4 - Vegas Vacation (1997)
Part 5 - Vacation (2015)

SIXTEEN CANDLES (1984)

"That's why they call them crushes. If they were easy, they'd call 'em something else."

Now this is more like it!  After kinda getting a little down from watching PRETTY IN PINK, I revisited SIXTEEN CANDLES and now I feel awesome!   I think I'm gonna go party with the Donger, put a pizza on a record player, dance to some Oingo Boingo and wreck my Rolls Royce.

Average high school teenager Molly Ringwald is superbummed that her family is so wrapped up planning her older sister's wedding that they forgot her 16th birthday.  Even worse, the hunk that she's secretly in love with doesn't even know she exist...or does he?  One thing's for sure though: the local geek/wannabe stud knows that she exists and he hits on her nonstop.

I'm not sure if SIXTEEN CANDLES is the single best 80's high school movie or not, but it's up there.  It's certainly one of the most influential, right along side FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and THE BREAKFAST CLUB.  I know for me as a sexy teenager in the 80's I watched the fuck out of this movie.  Watching it again now after not seeing it for a number of years I was kinda surprised at how well it's aged.  I was also impressed by the intricacies of Anthony Michael Hell's performance.  He was really good.  Were all of those little touches instructed by John Hughes or did he just do them?  Like when he knocked over that loaded down rack of car parts and in an effort to rectify the situation he moves that one little part over closer to the larger pile.  Haha.

SIXTEEN CANDLES might not be for the more grumpier members of the No Fun Club who point out things like, whenever the great Long Duk Dong appears on screen you here a gong clanging or some of the more cruder sexual comments.  I just look of it as an ugly product of the times and that's how people talk.

A wide cast full of great characters, tons of quotable lines and memorable scenes, 80's fashion overload, otto-mo-biiiles, superfast pace without a single dead scene, shower scene, expensive floppy disks, headgear on.  Highly, highly recommended.