NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989)

"Merry Christmas. Shitter was full."

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION is probably the greatest Christmas movie of all time (despite the fact the story ends on Christmas Eve).

This year, instead of driving all over the place, the Griswolds decide to stay at home for the holidays, so, of course, that means plenty of eggnog, multiple uninvited guests, pissed off neighbors, a kidnapping, 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights and dozens of fantastic quotable lines.  I've seen NLCV so many times, I can probably quote the whole movie.

Clark Griswold is at his best when he's stressed out and in this film he's definitely stressed out!  Worried about his Christmas bonus and overwhelmed with troublesome relatives, Clark is about to lose his mind, so it's probably not the greatest idea of all time to single-handedly cover his house in 250 strands of lights...but he does it anyway and the rest is movie history.

Quick pace, a re-watchability rating that's off the scale, a squirrel...excuse me, I mean "SQUIRREL!", tree sap, nippley weather, perfect acting by a truly impressive cast, a dog with a sinus condition, a gigantic Christmas tree, tons of laughs, a FRIDAY THE 13TH reference, yuppie neighbors and some asshole in his bathrobe, emptying a chemical toilet into my sewer.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION is mandatory viewing.  I even have it saved on my phone so I can have it with me everywhere I go.

Part 1 - National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
Part 2 - National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
Part 4 - Vegas Vacation (1997)
Part 5 - Vacation (2015)

CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (1948)

Two men are wrong accused of a murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison even though the only evidence was a bunch of bullshit handled by crooked cops.  Imagine that.  Eleven years later the mother of one of the men has saved up $5,000 scrubbing floors and she places an ad in the paper offering the 5 g's as a reward for any information about the real killer(s).  The editor of the paper sees the ad so he assigns reporter Jimmy Stewart to look into it.  Once he starts looking into the story it's pretty clear that the evidence doesn't line up at all.

Based on a true story CALL NORTHSIDE 777 hasn't aged too well.  In fact I'll just go ahead and say it: it's boring.  We all know right from the beginning how the story is going to end, so any suspense is thrown out the window.  The semi-documentary filming style doesn't help things at all either.  Added onto that the numerous loose ends and the lack on a concrete bad guy CN777 is pretty slow going.  Stewart's performance is fine, as is Lee J. Cobb's, but even so I can't think of any reason in the world why I would ever want to watch this film again.  If you need me I'll be in my room watching THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.