Episode 7: National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Weirding. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Chasing Chevy Chase Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Chris Ashu, all the way from the Culture Cast in Weirding Way Media. I am also joined by my two good friends all the way from Wake Up Heavy, Mark Begley. I wonder if these guys know the commodoors that's pretty.

And all the way from the projection booth. He's your friend of mine, Mike White. Let me just turn off my camera here. Okay, you know what I was. I was whistling.

I was whistling zippity DooDah out of my asshole. It took me so long to learn how to do that. I can't believe you guys can hear that. I'm disappointed. Jezus, all right, hold on, let me pull my pants out.

That was a good bit, All right, got out of our assholes. I'm back all week. I've been working on, Jesus. That was pretty good. Yes.

On this episode of the Chasing Chevy Chase Podcast, we are in fact talking about, I think, in a lot of ways, the second biggest thing we've talked about outside of Caddyshack, and I think the thing that a lot of people would definitely have some feelings about chevy Chase on we're gonna be talking about nineteen eighty three's National Ampoons branded vacation. This summer, you can get close to your family. It's giving me a chance to spend a lot more time with you, Padreyot. The grand can see the real America. That's great and best of all, you'll only be gone.

Joe Hours joined chevy Chays on Nationale too. He's vacation waiting. On So uh yeah, the film came out, Like I mentioned in nineteen eighty three, It's written by all people John Hughes, directed by Harold Ramis, and its stars our dear friend, mister chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold for the first time, the head of the Griswold family, who him his wife played by Beverly D'Angelo, and their children played by Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron go across the country from Chicago to Guess La to go to this universe's facsimile of Disneyland, and hilarity ensues because obviously this is the first vacation movie, but also it's a it's a bit of a rough watch in a lot of ways, because it is the first vacation movie.

Yeah, we're gonna get getting into the movie and spoiling it. So if you've never seen it before, it's like, I'm like thirty forty years old at this point, forty two years old. Like I mean, at this point, I don't know what to tell you. But let's uh, let's let's start around the room. Are you listening to this?

Yeah? Really? Before? Yeah? Really?

I findly this is something that I find would be a little hard to believe that any one of us hadn't seen it showing up for this episode of the show. But I'm gonna kick it to you first, Mike, what did you think of National Lampoon's Vacation. This was my first time seeing it all the way through. That's wild, yep, wild. Thought I had seen it.

I knew parts of it. The swimming pool scene I knew. I think that's about it. Maybe, Yeah, I really, I just had never seen this, and I have to say I was really impressed. I really liked this movie.

I had a great time watching it. And I can see why if you had grown up with this movie, why it would be such an indelible part of your existence. Really. I know, like I've heard lines from this my family or my wife's family. They all call Walmart wally World, so they're always talking about going to Wally World.

Yeah. I knew certain things from this one, like the family truckster and those things. But man, first time seeing this thing all the way through, and super impressed, especially oppressed with the setvness of it, and having usually eaten Levy at the beginning and John Candy at the end, hearing about the reshoots at the end reading the script, I dove in headfirst with this and I really just had a great time. So I'm pretty happy with us watching this episode. What about you, Bagley.

I don't remember the first time I saw it. It would have been excuse me in the eighties at some point, but it wasn't one that I raced to. I think I had kind of gotten over my Chevy Chase fandom by then because I had probably seen things like three Amigo's in the theater and a couple other ones that spies like us, things that didn't really work all that much for me. Because I missed this in the theater, I would have been too young to see it technically, and don't remember really renting it, probably saw it on TV the first time, and of course missed much of the wonderful humor in it because this is a rated R movie. Thankfully it didn't get nipped and tucked to fit a PG slot, and so I've always really enjoyed it.

It's not one of my favorite comedies, but over the last couple of years, when it pops up on one of our cable channels, I find myself watching it, and I think for me, the other night, when we watched it as a family, I noticed, Oh, it's funny that this feels like his niche because prior to this he was always the single, smug, obsequious character, and here he's just a dopey dad and it seems like he fits in that slot much better. But I think the real star for me is Anthony Michael Hall in this film. I've always enjoyed him and see him as kind of one of those naturals like Macaulay Culkin, where his line deliveries and stuff just always crack me up. So I knew I would like it watching it for the show, I enjoy it quite a bit.

I think of the movies that we've watched so far, It's probably the one I enjoy the most, even over Caddy Shack or return. I would return to this one more often than Caddy Shack. What about You, Chris Jevy Chase has Modern Problems? Should have been the thing that you have the hardest time letting go of with this show, because it's the best thing that we watched so far. There, Well, I'm sorry, you're right.

Yeah, right, Look, I've seen a lot of the vacation movies, but I haven't seen this one as much as I've seen everything else. Definitely seen Vegas Vacational. Christmas Vacation is a movie that we watch every year at Christmas time, and then I think the one I've seen the most of is European Vacations. Rangely enough, that's the only one I've seen, but I haven't seen it since it came out, so it'll be like seeing the same first time. That is the only time I have watched its.

Parliament, That's all I remember exactly. It's it's again like we'll get to it when we get to it, but it's weird in and of itself. That European Vacation is the one that I had seen the most of. However, I think I'm actually going to disagree a little bit with you, Mark, surprisingly, which is I think for me, having seen all the vacation movies, maybe more recently than the rest, I think that chevy Chase doesn't work as the dat at all in this movie because I think it's because this is like, this is the first time, so they're getting their legs underneath them to figure out what works and what doesn't, And there are parts of this movie that do not work because chevy Chase, the characterization he's using for Clark Griswold is very different from where this will even go in the next movie, let alone two or three movies down the road.

And I think right now, it's like, what's really funny is it's like, clearly there's a lot of the time of the movie where chevy Chase is following along with a script, and then there are other parts of it where he's clearly ad libbing and just like riffing, because there's a couple scenes in the movie where it's like he's in the shot by himself and it looks like they were like, all right, we're just gonna cut cut to chevy Chase a couple of times saying funny stuff, and we'll pick one of the takes, namely, when they show up at the house in Phoenix and they're like trying to drop the dead grandma off. It literally has Beverly DiAngelo being like Clark stop. And then it cuts to him and there's like three different shots in that scene that are used with him, and it's three different versions of him and the way he looks.

So it's like, Okay, they clearly either were ad libbing or doing some like light improv I say all that because I don't think Chevy Chase works very well in this movie, because he he hasn't really fallen as far into this role as he would. He's too smug in this role, as there's like not unbelievably smug, but it's like I have a hard time believing this guy wanted kids and that this guy is interested in being around children. I know, But in the other especially in Christmas Vacation and definitely in Vegas Vacation and for the most part in European Vacation, he seems like more of a dad. In this movie, it really just seems like he's just Chevy Chase who remembers he is meant to be a father in most of the scenes of the movie, but he's so much himself, I know, and again like maybe it's because my dad was in this way, but like that's the thing, Like there's plenty of stuff in this movie that reminds me of my own childhood growing up, especially the traveling cross country in a car of it all, because that was my family growing up and even in the nineties.

But I don't know, like chevy Chase, because this is the first one of these kinds of movies, he's not completely operating at the tone that he will be moving forward again good bad. Not really my place to say, it's just I don't think it works as well objectively in this movie because there's a hump that we have to get over that the other movies don't have to get over, which is chevy Chase being this family man in this movie, Like he this is the first time he's doing this effectively right, and it's such a departure from everything else with at least one half of the expectations. The other half it's just him doing the usual like slap sticky, pithy remarking. But for the most part, there's an expectation here with chevy Chase that's very different from everything else we've seen him in, which is he has to be imminently relatable as a father and likable.

And again he's not in this movie in large stretches. He's just doing the chevy Chase thing. So I enjoy this movie. I'm excited to talk about it. But this is a movie that every time I watch it, I'm like, you know, this really suffers from being the first movie like this, and not just the Vacation movie, but the first time chevy Chase is expected to be like a family man, which maybe that shoe fits now, but in eighty three it's like, this doesn't really fit chevy Chase.

Also, I would like to point out tons of the Universal backlop being used in this movie. Saint Louis Folks, I've never seen a more New York New York circa Universal Studios in nineteen eighty set. But I enjoy this movie. I don't enjoy it as much as the other ones, but I think to your point, Begley, this is definitely one that's up in contention for the best things we've talked about on this show period. I will agree with you, Chris.

As I was watching this film, I was the King. I don't necessarily buy him in this role. I'm still okay with this movie overall, but there are a lot of times where I'm just like, yeah, he's just he's being Chevy Chase. He's not Clark Griswold yet, he is Chevy Chase pretending to be a dad. So I could I could totally see where you're coming from with that.

And yeah, there are certain things where I'm just like, the way he's moving his face, the little pithy remarks and all that. Yeah, I was like, all right, yeah, this is totally chevy Chase, not this Clark Griswold character. But for the most part, it still works out very well for me. Yeah, Clark Griswold is not necessarily the master of his domain. I mean, that's made very clear in the later movies, and I think in this movie, opposed to the other ones, he is the most autonomy here, which I think works against that character because the thing about Clark w.

Griswold is he is so put upon. In all the other movies, he's put upon, and then he's putting it on his family as well, and in this one, they don't seem to be at odds with him as much as they are in the other movies, Like everybody seems to be on board with going to Wally World. In this movie. I distinctly remember at the beginning of European Vacation, they literally have this whole thing about do we even want to go? Does the family even want to go to Europe?

Or do we just take you know, Chevy and Beverly DeAngelo, And like that's part of the lead up to the plot of that second movie, and this movie is just like, no, he's just a dad and we're just gonna have Chevy Chase doing dad things. And I'm not saying that that's not what they were going for. It's just they're not mining it for the comedy. I would have thought they'd be mining it for either. Is probably the other problem and the other thing for me, this movie stinks of the nineteen seventies, like Reeks of the seventies, in a way that I often don't remember because National Lampoon's Vacation movies, I feel like, are pretty well considered to be eighties movies, and this movie comes out in eighty three.

But there's a lot of tonally seventies stuff in these movies, and especially the racial humor, which like I'm not saying like I'm offended or anything like, Look, I had family that lived in South Saint Louis, which is like a whitey suburb of Saint Louis, but I'd heard about East Saint Louis growing up and going to visit them, like and then this movie doing that, Like, Okay, fine, maybe that was the case. Probably not, but like there are deep there are weird detours in this movie that do not work for a whole host of reasons. That's one of them. This is a yet movie too in a lot of ways, like once they get on the road, it's very much like a situational comedy. And I meant nothing wrong with that.

It's just chevy Chase not being as endearing as he could be doesn't help sell some of the scenes in this movie where I need to believe he's an endearing father and not just not just chevy Chase who likes ass. We get it, like he's an ass man, we get it. So Like that's the thing, Like there's so much of chevy Chase in this movie that is chevy Chase, that it's hard to separate him and Clark Griswold, and that's a problem for me specifically. Well, I'm gonna disagree with you because I think that I don't necessarily want to be a dad, but I'm a dad character is what works for me. Like this, he doesn't really care about his family all that much.

Obviously he's selfish. Oh, he's a selfish guy. The trip is a selfish endeavor. Why aren't we flying Clark? Well, because getting there is half the fun.

That's his thing. Getting there is half the fun fun. Is he all that warm with his kids? I mean, even I can't. I haven't seen European vacation a long time, but Christmas Vacation.

Even then, though, it's it's almost like there, these are the people that I live with, So I put up with them or I deal with them. That to me seems like a through line, even in the Christmas Vacation movie. So I guess that didn't bother me. It seemed appropriate for him to be playing the I'm a dad, but I'm not really a dad. He's he's got an office job and he worked, you know, he works, and he makes the money and he brings the money home and you know, has some weird computer thing that he soaked up to his TV and this, this and this, So I don't know, I get that the characterization isn't completely there yet, but he's still pretty young when this movie comes out.

How old was Chevy Chase in nineteen eighty three, like early late thirties, early forties, so you know, one of those get married and have kids young kind of thing where bad doesn't necessarily like that position. But forty years old when this movie came out. So you know, I can understand that I didn't have kids until I was later older, so I was already ready for it. But you know, you get a little bit of that resentment of my family is ruining my fun and I think for me that's part of the enjoyment of the film because it's not over the top. But he's obviously selfish, and I like that he gets called out on it by Rusty.

And what's Beverley d'angelo's character. I always forget her name in these movies, Ellen, Ellen, Yes, you know, and of course she's the put upon wife and it puts up with a lot of stuff from him through the series. But I don't know, I was just surprised. I guess maybe I was just more surprised that up until this point this is not anything he had played yet. I'm very surprised that she forgets gives him after the whole Christie Brinkley thing.

Yeah, I mean, it's almost one of those things where it's like she you know, she knows him so well. It's like, obviously nothing was going to happen, but still most women would would not be as forgiving. But also I think some of that stuff comes from the original short story too, the racial stuff, because if memory serves, John Hughes wrote some pretty controversial things for National Lampoon. I just I remember that from the documentary which title I can't remember right now, but crazy that one loaded something. Yeah, yeah, and I remember them talking about some of his early stories were pretty indelicate.

Yeah, even some of his movies. I mean, Anthony Michael Hall doing that black voice the black scent for Weird Science that was then. Well, and that's one of the only movies where there are any black characters of him, I mean, talk about white wash. His movies are what do you think this is like that Richard Edson line from Ferris Bueller's Day off. It's like they treat those two characters the parking lot attendance like they're aliens, basically space aliens.

Yeah yeah, yeah, so you know, he definitely doesn't have the most. Diverse heyya an Asian guy in sixteen Candles long ago. Yeah, we all know how that's gone over in recent years. So they get changed from Native Americans in the short story to you know, East Saint Louis, the East St. Louis ghetto.

Right, well you still have Native Americans and here too. Yeah goodness, but they definitely want to assole. They definitely eliminate the camel. I mean, it's funny to look at this movie, and even as a very casual viewer, I was just like, it feels like a lot of this movies on the cutting room floor, with like the little line about the ca and there's a couple other times where I'm just like, uh oh the uh get those sandwiches that we got from the gas station. I'm like, oh, yeah, you cut out that scene of Clark robbing the gas station.

Mm hmm. Yeah, but they left the video of him robbing a hotel in that footage is still in the movie. Yeah, which is probably why they cut the other one because it's basically the same bit. Yeah it's a little too yeah, too much, I guess. And so that's kind of the thing for me in terms of chevy Chase in this movie.

The moments where it's the moments that I maybe don't work for me specifically are the moments where it is him and just one other person like him and Beverly DiAngelo or Christy Briekley. Those are the scenes in the movie that the movie is at odds with overall, because all of a sudden, when the kids are no longer part of a scene, or Ellen is no longer part of a seene Beverly D'Angelo, it's chevy Chase doing the Chevy Chase shit. And in this movie, for me, it doesn't work, not because again like not because this is the first vacation movie, but because the movie is trafficking what we already expect from Chevy Chase, and I think it would have been smarter to completely subvert that expectation, as opposed to when he's by himself, all of a sudden, he's again trying to be suave and debonair, and in this movie it actually works and comes off better than it does in any of the other vacation movies, because in the other ones kind of comes off as like a Leccherius creep, and in this movie, it's not that he doesn't come off as a Lecherius creep, but that scene with him and Christy Brinkley in the hotel bar, like, you could drop that in any other Chevy Chase movie and it would seem like right at home.

And I think that again, like this role that he's doing, he has to be likable and relatable at least somewhat, and this is the only one where I distinctly remember him really being an asshole, and he's a real asshole in this movie. I mean, you've kind of alluded to it, Mark that there's a reoccurring gag in all these movies where he looks around and says his kids' names and he doesn't recognize them, which obviously gets played for laughs the longer these movies go on, because there's never a reoccurring actor or actress cast as the Griswold children. It's always two different actors in Beverly D'Angelo and Chevy Chase. So I've always wondered, I'm assuming that's part of like a little bit of meta humor of the movie.

But again, like this movie is so specifically a family traveling movie that chevy Chase being the kind of put upon dad when he's that it works. It's just I want less of him by himself because that's not really the character that matters in this movie. He has to be around his family to really see the characterization. I mean, the stuff that works for me and the other vacation movies is not him by himself with someone else. It's often in the kind of bigger context of what's going on in the movie.

All of that to say, chevy Chase being himself is the part of this movie that's hard for me to wrap my head around because I think this is probably in terms of the mainstream this might be the character he's known for playing for a lot, if not most people. Yeah, he totally is this. While I was watching this movie the second time this week, I realized that this is the movie of famous brothers or lesser famous brothers like Randy Quaid, James Keach is in here, Brian Doyle Murray, who we've seen in Caddy Shack already and also just saw him in Modern problems yep. And then in this one we also even have Richard Dreis's brother as the sheriff in that western town and that's. Who he was, right, Okay, Yeah, I'm like, I know, he looks familiar somehow, and I was looking through the credits to see I couldn't pick out who he was supposed to be as a character, so I didn't catch the name.

So funny. It's interesting that Brian Doyle Murray works so much with Chevy because didn't his brother absolutely hate Chevy. Yeah level talent, bab exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's that's funny. And then apparently James Keach at this point was married to uh Jane Seymour, so another tie into Oh Heavenly Dog here.

It's interesting. If you need more, we deserve more. That's the true phrase. I mean in terms of like things that we've watched, I think that this is probably the most mainstream, accessible and like understandably popular thing that we've watched. It does check all the boxes of a good road trip movie.

You have you know, the main family being interesting, you have them getting into I would say, like hilarious situational comedy bits like again, like the thing about this movie that works is that it is really like vignette style, Like you have like five to ten minutes in a lot of these scenes, but then we move on to the next kind of scene. But these are like these like small situational five to ten bits, you know, minute bits, like the thing at their at their cousin's house in Kansas, which I mean again, like you you already mentioned Randy Quaid. Like Randy Quaid, I think for me, anytime he's in these movies, so he's not in European vacation, but he's in Christmas vacation and he's in Vegas vacation.

This might be Randy Quaid's best role in terms of what he is needed to do and how easily even here he steps into this character, like this character is already a fully formed idea from the first time Randy Quaid is on screen as Uncle Eddie. But I think anytime he's on screen, he just walks away with it. And that's going to be the case in the next couple of vacation movies because he is just he knows exactly what they're asking of him, and he plays it perfectly. And he was perfectly cast to play that role. Oh yeah, yeah, Becausn't Eddie is fantastic.

I do love some of the back and forth that Chevy Chase has with him, especially when he goes real Tomato catch up. Bad only the Best Clark. I don't know why they call this hamburger. Helper does just fine on it sown. I yeah, I always forget because I'm like, what are they making?

What are those patties? I thought it was dog food or cat food at first, and I always forget the Hamburger Helper line man. Yeah, it's perfection in this the whole family, I mean, oh my. God, imagine coca is amazing in this movie. Holy shit, well, even the creepy kids.

It's It's one of those things I've had. I had an experience like that. It wasn't it wasn't family, but stated a school friend's house one night, and it was just so weird and bizarre and everything was kind of it was like a David Lynch movie before I'd even knew what a David Lynch movie was. And that's what this scene always reminds me of, with her and the casual incest remark and okay, porno, the weird porno that the brother has and yeah, you know that weird you know, bopping your baloney and it's just always creeps me out. That whole scene just creeps me out.

Iver bop your blogony? God what yeah, why would you? Man? You know what they say? Family members are your are your shirpas up the mountain of sexuality at a certain.

Age in the Grisball world, she was born without a tongue Clark, Yeah, she was burned eat lack of hog. Well, And that's the funny thing, Like that's a reoccurring gag in and of itself. Christmas Vacation, they have another character who it's like, oh, her eyes are fixed after the donkey kicked or whatever it is something to that effect. And here I was the The casual incest joke always makes me laugh because the movie doesn't even hang a lantern on. It's just like Daddy says, I'm the best, and it's like it's not even outright set, it's more just the implication.

Uh. And the daughter's horrified face just I noticed it this time watching it, I'm like, oh my god, it's so perfect. The kid who plays the boy cousin, he so reminds me of another actor and I had to look him up just because it looked so similar to me, he reminds me, and I'm not going to be able to find it. Maybe it was Jason Hervey, the guy who mm hmmm, yeah it is Jason Hervey. Who the kids from Peewee's Big Big Adventure.

Yes, years yeah, yeah, I totally can see this. So remind I was like, is that the same kid? And no it's not, but yeah, super similar face and just those yeah you you. I had cousins that were like this or I'm just like, I don't want to be anywhere near these people whatsoever. Please.

Yeah, it's a whole whole other world. I mean, Kansas is a whole of the world. Oh yeah, only. A couple hours from here. I mean, I love I love that.

It's again it's like there's a little bit of the snobs versus the slobs in this movie, right, which goes back to Caddy Shack. And then I think for me in a lot of ways, like is the story of the Griswold family is or a bunch of slobs attending to attempting to be snobs and realizing very quickly that they have no way to prevent themselves from being slobs, because I think chevy Chase, obviously in this movie, is really the one pushing it. I mean, Mike, to your point about the whistling out of your asshole, I mean that that scene alone cuts to the main core of the idea of Clark Griswold, which is he's just a family man seemingly attempting to and believing that he's doing the right thing. And it couldn't in this movie.

It could not be farther from the truth that he is doing the right thing. And you know, when we get to the end and there's that payoff, I think it works really well. But I do like that we got to kind of see them get ground down throughout the entirety of the movie. That's like, that's the vacate That's another thing in these vacation movies is like watching the family being ground down by the scenarios and the situations that they've put themselves in. And often, if not always, in these movies, the person that flips out is Chevy Chase, which makes sense because again, just given where this movie's heart is, it has to be the father of the group that's you know, freaking out and setting the tone for everybody else.

Yeah, just that that that dad energy. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but like my dad didn't have this type of energy. But there was a lot of times where I'm just like, Okay, yeah, you don't want to keep doing these things that are gonna know you're dad. And yeah, like you said, just seeing the loss of the money, the loss of you know, the car, the way that just it just keeps adding on and on and on and it just gets worse as they travel west. It's really is kind of nice seeing them being punished by the powers that be.

Well, and that's what I like about these movies is that they are kind of mean spirited. Like the point of the movie is. Behind the mean spirited that fucking dog. Oh wow, but that's the thing. Like that's that for me in LLLT in a lot of ways is like that's the gag from this movie is the thing with the dog.

And it's like it's effectively like four scenes in an hour and a half movie. We have the setup that the dogs the pain in the ass, we have the continued setup that the dogs the pain in the ass, and then we have him tying the dog to the bumper, and then the movie forgets intentionally about it, and then we have this officer, Why am I being pulled over? Oh? I you know, I don't know, I'll do anything. Yeah, it's I think it's the it is.

This movie's like singular moment. And if you remember this movie for anything, I think it's for the dog, because I don't think you're remembering the climax of this movie that goes on way too long, goes absolutely nowhere. I mean this, I think, for me, is the only vacation movie where when they finally get the joke is that they never really necessarily get to the place, and the other movies they're they're there already and or it's you know, it's a seasonal event. This one, it's like they they go out of their way to go and do this, and I the climax of the movie just falls flat, given how the highs that the movie is already reached throughout the movie are so much higher than where it goes. It's yeah, this is the first and only time where it's like the journey is the point.

And I think that for me, I get it. But like European Vacation works because it takes place in Europe, and they're in Europe the whole time. The Wally World parts of this movie are so bad and kind of underwhelming that I kind of wish that the gag was they got there and the place is closed, and that's it, and we get this huge freak out like that should have been it. And I know that I know why it wasn't, and we're going to talk about why it wasn't. But there are parts of this movie that stick out like a sore thumb, that have effectively that are not Chevy Chase's fault or anybody's fault.

It's just the screenwriting alone kind of takes it upon itself to go, well, they're at Wally World, and now you're gonna get to see what that means. And it's like, this couldn't be more obvious that you guys are like trying to cobble together shooting one place and passing it off as somewhere else. You know. Back to the dog thing. I mentioned to my daughter because I don't think she had seen it all the way through with me before, and I said, in the story, the dog is still attached to that leash.

Oh my god, I'm kind of glad. They don't get that in the movie, but you you miss a bit of it when Keach says, you know, I bet he held on for a good quarter mile or whatever. I love it he kept up with you for a mile or two. But yeah, just the story, feet are ripped off. Yes, yeah, even in the screenplay you could see the gore on the front of James Keach's motorcycle.

So I do it in a nice touch. Nice touch. And also with the with the short story, I don't think that the cop comes back up and talks about the carcass because I think that Edna doesn't know about her dog until later, and you don't get that revelation right then. But it works so well in the movie, how they handled that scene. I thought they did a great job.

And just to see to watch Chevy Chase's face when Keach is going on and to well, to watch both of their faces, and to just know that they were on the verge of cracking up, especially Chase. Holy shit, you can really tell that, and it works so well. Yeah. Yeah, And Keach is great in that plane, the very demonstrably upset cop. And boy boy, does he sound like his brother in this movie.

Yeah, and if you're not paying attention to Chevy putting the dog on the back of the car, you're wondering what's going on as well, and that reveal is pretty great the first time, you know. Yeah, well, and that's the thing for me about that scene that yeah, you both have kind of already mentioned, like it's it's such a memorable scene and they don't show anything like at all, nothing is nothing, nothing is shown. But that's I think for me, that's why the scene works so well. Is that again, like just the horror of what it is is so awful on its own that we we don't need to actually see it. And for me, the scene's funny.

But the part that always makes me laugh the loudest is when he's like, I'm gonna go remove the carcass from the road, right, And it's like like Jesus H. Christ movie, Like, yeah, it's it's not that the movies means spirited. I mean it is mean spirited, but like the things that it's kind of mean spirited towards, for the most part, deserve it. I'm not sure that the dog deserves what happens to him, because it's that's pretty glarally what happens to the dog. But there is this kind of again through line in these movies of like violent not violence necessarily towards animals, but there always have to be these like these things that are you know, there's a violent scenario because then you know National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation very similar stuff.

Yeah, exactly in this movie, it's a dog. And what's funny is like there there are reoccurring things that this movie sets up that the other movies will get to, and I think this movie does it better than any of the other ones. Namely Christy Brinkley. She has the most to do here in every single one of these other movies. Yeah, she's not in any of them up until Vegas Vacation.

She's not in Yeah, in Vegas Vacations. I've never seen that one. But there's always there's always this scene in the movies, and like the Christmas Vacation one is just at totally I like that one probably more than this and it's the one that we watched more. But that scene the other woman seen in Christmas Vacation is just completely worthless. I don't it could be easily be cut and not change the movie for me.

At least I'm curious to see it because I'm totally c about each other one. It's one of those things that they hit on in every film, and. I don't and I don't think it's like, oh, we're supposed to hate Chevy Chase. I don't get what the deal is like, it never works for his characterization that he's going to be like sleeping around, like you know, do you see your wife? Dude?

Like do you see fantasy? You know? Yeah, I know right when you've got that upstairs in the motel room, You're oh, yeah, come on, Clark. I love how greatest singer Beverly Dangel. Yes.

When they're singing those songs at the beginning, I'm just like, holy shit, lady, you're amazing. Yeah, what is it? Mocking Bird? Yeah, she's really just craanky. Even when the Marty Moose song she's elevating it, it's like, Wow, forgot you were in Hair, I forgot how talented you are.

And for me, this is I think I think that she is the best out of all the movies in this movie because she's given the most to do here, and a lot of the later movies, especially especially in Vegas and Christmas Vacation, like she kind of comes off as like a little bit of a nag or at least like disinterested or like especially in Christmas Vacation, she's very much like annoyed by Chevy Chase. In this movie, they feel the most sincere. Again, it doesn't really feel like they're a married couple. And if it does feel like it, maybe, if anything, it feels like they're married. But I can't imagine these people having kids.

It's probably the better way of putting it. Like the kids being in this movie. They are I think you kind of both have already alluded to, like Anthony Michael Hall might be the best part of this entire movie. I love them in this movie. I love them in this movie.

Especially him and Clark in that scene where they're bonding. I love that. I love that, and I love yeah, and I love. No oddly he drinks that beer. Oh yeah, well the beer can's empty, and so I love like seeing their acting styles as to can I make you believe that there's beer in this beer can?

So good? But yeah, that's a great moment. Yeah, and it's odd that the daughter Danan Baron is like three years older. And I always assume she's younger or supposed to be. I don't know if they even mentioned their ages in the film, but it strikes me she has one of those faces where I mentioned that to my daughter and she's like, she looks like she's twelve, and I said, no, she's like eighteen or something at this point, and he was sixteen or fifteen.

For some reason, I thought she was played by a different actress. I thought she was played by the one is that one with where it was like the it was a TV movie about a girl who was being photographed by a pediast. I think it was like Lost Angel or something like that. Do you know what that's I. Think she's in European Vacation.

Oh, so she replaces her Okay, oh that's the other thing. Like only Beverly D'Angelo, Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn are the ones that show back up in European Vacation two different actors, both much older in that movie, and then in Vegas Vacation they pivot backwards and it's Johnny Galecki from Big Bang Theory fame and Juliette Lewis playing the daughter in Christmas Vacation and then in Vegas Vacation. I always forget the actors. Who plays the daughter, but the brother is played by Russy's played by Ethan Embery of all people. Wow, yeah, yeah, but she comes back though, right, doesn't Dana Baron come back?

No way? No? No, okay again played. I could have sworn that she played her twice. No, that's the thing, like nobody, nobody plays anybody twice outside of Clark and Ellen and Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn, who doesn't show up in one.

She does play She does play her twice. She's in Christmas Vacation to cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Oh oh yeah, the movie was going to be watching. Yes, okay, it's awful. It's awful is what it is.

That is not on our list? Right, No, because it doesn't have Chivvy. It doesn't have Chivvy Chase in it. Yeah, I don't feel so bad. The other girl's name is Dana Hill, So it was Dana Baron, who I also get confused with Dana Barrett, the character from the Ghost Ghostbusters.

But yeah, Dana Hall is the one from European Vacation. Like you're saying, and Fallen Angel is the name of that TV movie I was trying to think of, so, yeah, one of those very disturbing TV movies from when we were yes, yeah, fucking Richard masor just being a total creep in that one. Well they really they really did some crazy stuff with those TV movies. Man, oh boy, they sure it did. Yeah, Portrait of Teenage, Runaway, all those kind of things.

The one that Linda Blair was in. Oh yeah, yeah yeah, and Executioner Song, Oh yeah, yeah, we'll be talking more about her. It's all about that metallic p truckster for me, the wagon Queen particularly. I know I ordered the Antarctic blue. I love those color names.

Those are like the real color names from back when I was working for Chrysler. It's like, oh yeah, the pear opolescence. Yeah yeah, well I love that it's Eugene Levy too, Like just that. That's a great scene to open the movie, because I do think it kind of it sets the tone for what Clark Griswold's kind of character in his expects and how you expect him to react in scenarios. That's that son is that son?

That tone is made very apparent the moment the movie opens when you know, oh, you know, well, we'll bring your car back, and now it's just smushed like oh okay, like all of that. For me, I think, yeah, it really works, like it really works because again, chevy Chase, when he's playing Clark Griswold, the way he's gonna end up playing him in the rest of these movies. It is funny because it is funny that it is chevy Chase playing this role like that in and of itself is funny because he him him playing as a dad or as a man with children, to me is just it doesn't jive with who she doesn't. It doesn't work. It doesn't really work.

No, which I think works because he's one of those dads that doesn't want to be married or I have kids. He wants to be with Chrissie Brinkley. Or thanks that you know, the grass is always greener. So of all these vacation movies, the only one that I've watched all the way through until this one was in apparently European Vacation, which I had forgotten about. It was the at Helm one.

And with at Helm it feels so different. It feels like he sincerely wants to be the best dad in the world, and he just keeps getting shown up that he's not a great dad, whereas with this Yeah, to your point, it's like, doesn't really feel like he wants to be a dad. So isn't he rusty? Yeah he is. Yeah, so that's probably why, right.

But to be fair, in the later vacation movies, that is the role chevy Chase plays is like he wont like in Vegas Vacation, that's very much the case in Christmas Vacation, that's the reason he has that entire freak out. And in European Vacation, there's a very early scene where it's the four of them, Rusty, Clark, Ellen, and Audrey Audrey, the four of them at the table discussing, discussing like why are we doing this? Should we even be going to Europe? And chevy Chase talks about like, you know, I've always wanted to take my family to Europe with me and like to go together. And it's like that is where I start to believe that this is that character he like.

I think chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, it is his most endearing role because he is in the in the best versions of the character, he is trying to be a good dad and that he's failing is the biggest problem, and that's why he freaks out. This movie, the freak out comes feels like it comes from a different place. He's not that he's specifically disappointed, but he's taking a lot of like personal animity towards the thing, as opposed to feeling like it's an affront to him and his family. It's just it's an affront to him specifically. And I like when it's they don't hear, right.

I like when it's like the I like and I think it works better when it's the other way around, when he is the one that's like freaking out and they're trying to calm him down, not the other way around. Right, Yeah, you're all fucked in the head, Yes, but'll we just turn around? This is a quest? Yeah. He has a bit like that in Christmas Vacation as well.

That's very good, a little monologue like that. I think I've heard that. Like these movies are, like I was thinking at the very beginning, they're such a part of pop culture that they just kind of have seeped in with certain things. So like when he does this freak out in this, I was like, oh, yeah, this is where he says something like allelujah, holy shit. Yeah from Christmas Vacation exactly, holy shit, where's the title and all is the next line?

Yeah, So I'm like waiting for that to show up in here. So when it doesn't happen, I'm like, oh, it must be another one. I get okay, all right. I mean I am aware of the existence of these other films. It's just that I don't know the content of them.

Like I know Christmas Vacation there's a plugging in of lights and stuff happens or whatever. So like I'm aware of some of the concepts, but I'm just have never watched these things. So like when he's imagining himself in the car with Christy Brinkley across the or I like how he's pretty much admitting how his hair's going by the way he's like sit down and everything. Yeah, there's some there's some good moments in here. And yeah, even with that, like we don't believe that he is this dad, it still worked for me very well.

Well. I think that that for me is the success of the movie overall is that it works in spite of kind of that pretty steep hill to get up over, And I think that's because of how funny it is, the situational nature of the comedy being what it is that allows them to really kind of travel far with the places they can go to, like when they go to the middle of the desert and chevy Chase is walking around dying God from thirst like that, all of that is just it works because of how like put upon chevy Chase is by this point in the movie. But I think for me, like more so than Christmas Vacation, this movie has a lot of really memorable, specifically memorable bits to this movie because it's a road trip movie, like the thing with the dog, like the thing with the with Aunt Edna dying in the car and them having to deal with it.

I mean, like so much of it is just like typical road movie stuff where it's just like these characters being put upon. But I think for me, in a lot of ways, like this is the vacation movie, like you both have already talked about it free whole group of people, this is like this is that movie for them, and it speaks to a certain time and a place in their life. And I don't know how relatable Chevy Chase is as a father for a lot of people, but to your point, Mark, there are probably plenty of people that either that is the case with their parents or they feel that their parents felt that way towards them. Yeah, that's the character to me, at least in this film, is that he's the stuck dad, but he's also very gung ho and positive.

He doesn't get he's put upon, but he never loses his spirit until the very end, because that even then that walk through the desert, when he emerges and he sees them there, he's happy to be alive, for one thing, but he's happy to see his family even though he did all this and they are obviously got rescued in and are already there. You know, He's not like, Okay, we should turn around and go home. It's a quest and so he's going to keep that quest going until you know, either he's dead or he's killed everybodybody else, which almost happens a couple of times in this and I love those scenes are my favorite. Some of my favorites the falling asleep in the car, which is you know, a bit straight from the short story.

The desert scene a little different, but Beverly d'angelo's response Dan Edna and that is like verbatim from the short story. And then, uh, you know, of course the end is a little bit different, but you know it's uh, he's he keeps his spirits for the most part. Yeah, there's a kind of a lost subplot in here. And when they do the car jump, so like Anthony Michael Hall has his finger up his nose. He's picking his nose when that happens, and he's like, oh, I hurt my brain.

And then I think Beverly DeAngelo says, I broke my nose. And then Dana says I got my period. And there's like this whole thing of her in the screenplay of getting her period, and you know, she says like I need to find a bathroom, but like that just kind of gets in here. But that was like a whole little subplot of like her getting her period and her becoming a woman at this point and just how you know, she's doing it out in the middle of the fucking desert, you know. So I was a little sad that that got lost, But no, no, no, I think that the new ending works better.

I get what you're saying, Chris, as far as like it would have been better had they never actually gotten to go to Wally World. That that was the thing, was that, you know, they're disappointed they never actually get to do it. I don't know. I would like to see the original ending, just to see how it compares to what we ended up with, because I thought it sounded interesting that he is holding Roy Wally captive and having all of his yes men do these song and dance numbers and stuff. But I felt it just kind of abruptly ended, and then it's like, hey, we're we're on the plane.

Thank goodness that Roy Wally bought our airline tickets to go back to Chicago. It's like, all right, that was pretty quick. I mean, you get that one shot of them with the moose ears or moose andlers in that montage of cards, but that's it. You know. You don't get to know other than that that they get to go back home.

Yeah. I was curious about that picture. I was paying attention this time because knowing that there were cut scenes and knowing that it was quite different from the script, and also trying to kind of compare it to the short story, which I actually read. I didn't read the script, but me they knew the short story was would be very different. Goot, story and script were very similar, just so you know, like a lot of those things were right once.

Were there two other kids? Were there two other kids in the Did they have a baby? It seemed like when I was reading the short story, like a new kid, a new name would pop up, like there was a Patty and a Mark, And I'm like, how many kids do do they have? That's a good question. I don't remember how many kids that were in the short story.

For sure it was the two kids in the script. Okay, yeah, because they have had a like an infant, a toddler and a newborn or something in the short story. And it was confusing because it's, uh, you know, no one's drawn very distinctly in that, and the names are different. I think the names of the kids are all different anyway, Maybe not, but I was like, what I keep talking about a Patty and a and a Mark or a Mary or something or how many kids are there supposed to be? Yeah, for sure it's Clark.

They mentioned Clark at one Yeah, yeah, I don't think they mentioned his food additives business, which ends. Up coming back in vacation in Vegas vacation or yeah, in Vegas vacation. In the opening of the of the movie, who does that's like a first, by the way, Mike's yeah never never, never in a million years. Just like all of a sudden, I like looked down. I was like, Hey, that's Mike's wife.

Yeah she is. I I don't think, you know. In Christ's Vacation, obviously it's it's a lot more like focus on the family, and in European Vacation, I don't know, like so much of because they change the kids, so much of it is going to be different that in a lot of ways, it is a shame that this is this is cast so well with Anthony Michael Hall, not not saying Ethan Emberry and Johnny Glecki aren't great actors, but Anthony Michael Hall is so good in this movie speaking of the kids, that it is a shame that they ended up recasting the child actors to be just children in every movie effectively or varying degrees of child and teenager. Because I think kind of, like I kind of alluded to, he's he's as good as Chevy Chase is in this movie, if not, if not better because him being like he's great sixteen holding his own opposite Chevy Chase is very impressive.

Yeah, he has that he's got you can tell he's got that something. And I saw this, you know, way after probably already seeing him and all the other John Hughes movies and thinking when I saw sixteen Candles in the theater, Oh, this kid is great. You know, he's so natural. And continuing onward, when did European Vacation come out, because he would have been he might have been too. Old by then.

Yeah, well he already had that huge gross burd in this one. Like if you look at it right in those reshoots, he's so much taller. Uh, European Vacation was only two years almost a day after. Oh yeah, I think he probably aged out by that time. It seems like the kid that plays him in that though, is probably supposed to be around eighteen or so.

The kid that plays him in that movie is like a straight as adult. But that's the thing, like this is the only one where they're really kids, like where they are like children, you know, Europe. They seem pretty Christmas Vacation. They seem like they're even younger though than this, at least Johnny Galeki does. Yeah, I can kind of see that.

I don't know, Like I guess the way he's written in that movie, he's given a little bit more autonomy than And that's the thing, Like Anthony Michael Hall has given about as much autonomy as you can be given given that he is a passenger in a car on a family road trip, like not expected to be the ones making the decisions in terms of the plot. So that's the thing and the other in the other vacation movies, the other kids are older, yes for the most part, but also they're given more autonomy within the narrative to you know, in European Vacation, Rusty straight up gets in trouble for going to a burlesque show. And Anthony Michael Hall would not be mistaken for an adult by anybody, how young he is in this movie.

But the actor that they have played Rusty in the next movie, it makes perfect sense whether they're like, oh he yeah, sure, he's a he's effectively eighteen. Sure why not? Yeah, Jason Lively, right, you said, yeah, yeah, Night of the Creeps, Yes, yeah. Well that's the other thing, I mean, the they they they make the ages of the kids kind of ambiguous because yeah, fluent ambiguous however you want to interpret it. Because at the end of the day, the ages of the kids plays into the comedy of the movie.

So it being younger kids is fun in this movie because you know, they're smoking joints and other stuff and you know, being observational geniuses like Dana Baron's character is. But the more the movies go on, the more that they kind of need them to be older to have their own kind of place in the script, because I mean, Dana Baron and Anthony Michael Halt don't really have character arcs in this movie. They just are there to be kind of not surpressing, but you know they're there to deliver these of dilage. Yeah, they're all hostages to the to the quest that he's on, so they don't really need to have they don't need an arc. No, And that's the other thing.

By having it be older actors in the other movies, you can kind of tailor it better to be more of a more of a story and plot as opposed to just like you've said, like, oh, they're essentially just being held hostage by their dad on vacation. Yeah, and I guess maybe it's not so much that Johnny Galecki is older necessarily age wise when he plays the character, but it's now that we're so far I mean, Rusty would be an adult, right if it had, you know, if we were now, whether he's older than Anthony Michael Hall was or around the same age, it's just it's so far along now that to me, that's that's funny that the kids it's almost like the Simpsons, you know, they never they're the same age for thirty seasons, right, so they don't get to age.

They don't get to age out of the house. Unfortunately, there are so few actors that are that are like that that just don't age. I mean, they can't all be Tom Cruise, right, yeah, or Paul Rudd. You know, had they had Paul Rudd, Yudd be the Rusty character, he'd. Still he could still yeah, exactly, he could still play him exactly.

Well, that's the other thing this movie is actually the I would contend the one and only time where the kids are being cast because they actually also kind of look like and resemble and are believably their children, like Anthony Michael Hall could totally be the kid of Beverly DiAngelo and Jimmy Jase. That's what I was thinking, say with right, Yeah, her as his child makes sense. Yeah, I never really I was consciously thinking of that, knowing you know that the kids change in every film and going, yeah, actually they sort of look like they're you know. Totally they totally do. And then when we get to the other movies, it's like they don't even care.

But that's fine, Like they they never make a point of it anyways, Like in this movie, In this movie, it feels like this is this is the most family of all the movies in terms of them actually feeling like a real family of people. The longer these movies go on, that ends up kind of in and of itself being the gag that it's so clearly different actors, and Chevy Chase always has the rusty I'm right here dad, like that that line shows up in every that's the you know, I'll be back of this franchise and this I mean this movie like again, like it just it's written so well and it's so well cast that you can't help but feel for these people because Chevy Chase is their father. But yeah, the longer this series goes on, the less kind of relatable everybody ends up being because again you have adult Chevy Chase and then older Chevy Chase interacting with adult children that still live at home.

It's like in Vegas Vacation. It's probably the most tenuous because those people are adults and they're still living like they're clearly adults living at home. This makes sense, like Dana Baron and Anthony Michael Hall both look young like children, so it makes sense that they're living with Clark and his wife. But then the later movies is like these are this would be like, oh, you're being invited on vacation by your family and you're in college type thing, And the writers of the movies never avail themselves to change up the formula like this, but they end up like hanging a lantern on the joke instead, which is we're recasting the characters. But this is the one where I genuinely feel like, oh, this is yeah, they're a family here, like believably eight family unit, which I think works in the film's favor.

I have to say that the movie is in danger at the end of it of getting stolen by John Candy, his character Lasky, who's basically his Paul fist in your face character from SCTV. He's so fucking good. He is just wonderful to watch him. Frank McCray also he treat me not a dog, but yeah. And then fucking Eddie Bracken has been in my life for like the last few months here between what we just saw him in Tales of the Dark Side where he used to admit that he was dead, and then uh, I just watched the Hail the Conquering Hero and Miracle of Morgan's Creek for the Projection Booth, so I'm just like, oh my god, more Eddie Bracken.

But he does a great job in here where he just is kind of a fuddle but not at the same time and like it feels like, oh, he's the you know, the rich guy that they're gonna pull one over on, but he kind of doesn't, you know, even though they actually end up getting their way at the end of the movie. But John Candy, like, I can't remember which of you was doing the whole I didn't get check on the ride this time. I didn't get chick it. I mean, it's just so good you couldn't even break the skin with that. How was it different than what was scripted the ending, because it's obviously different than the short story where he shoots Walt Disney in the lake.

Well, if memory serves he so it's pretty similar where you've got Clark going, you know, Clark and the family, and they even have you know, charots of fire being called out in the screenplay, which was hilarious. Race. So they get up to there, get the moose talking to them, the note and all that stuff, and then they go to the gas station and he runs across the street to the hardware store. Well, he doesn't go back to the park and staid. He goes to Roy Wally's house and breaks in and basically keeps him hostage, and just like, hey, I think I deserve some free entertainment here.

You know, I watch your show that whole speech. You know, I watch a show. I buy your stuff. Da da da da dah. You know you owe us and the him.

It's Roy Wally plus a bunch of his executives there, and so his executives start like singing songs and almost putting on like a little play for them and stuff and then hardcut and then they're on the plane going like, oh, I'm so glad that we you know that mister Wally got to see tickets. But I think there is like a moment of forgiveness as well. I think that whole like it's okay, you know, we're not going to rest you, because in the short story, to your point, it's basically the dad's going to get arrested and the rest of the family leaves him. They fly home. Yeah, I don't think that Clark is under arrest at the end of the movie.

No, not at all. Well, it's it's similar to what happens in Christmas Vacation, where it's like, there's no realistic world where if this happened in your life, you wouldn't be in fucking recently prison. But the movie kind of oh, you know, oh his boss, this realizes the error of his ways. Oh, I won't pressity charge. It's the same thing here, like, oh, any brack, I'm not going to press any charges because it reminds me of my family wrote variations like.

That that trip to Chicago or something they took. You know, now, as you're saying that, Chris, that Christmas Vacation ending is sort of an easter egg for anybody I guess that knows the original script of this, because it kind of plays out in the same way, very similar. Yeah, yeah, so they they It sounds like the script goes the direction of the short story, but just lightens it a little bit without any anybody getting shot and put in jail. True, so they're still already. Yeah.

I kind of agree with you, Mike that I enjoy the the reshot ending of them on the rides, and it does go on too long that we don't need to see them on five rides, aren't. Aren't you all tired? I agree, But it is funny now noticing how different everybody looks, and you know, especially back in the day, if I had seen this, I would have never even thought about Anthony Michael Hall now being three inches taller and Chevy's hair being a little bit shorter than it's been the whole rest of the movie. At least, no one's got a bad wig on. Oh yeah, some you know, like Pretty in Pink or Fantastic for You as a recent example.

But yeah, that kind of stuff just flew right. Over my head. When I was younger, I wouldn't even have noticed or had any idea that there was a different ending involved. I want to like the way the movie ends, I just yeah, I don't know. For me, I feel like all the stuff with the theme park, it just look it's a black comedy in a lot of ways, but like the way that they change the ending kind of pulls up out of that at the last moment and kind of makes it something very different where these four people, these four privileged people from Chicago can get what they want however they want it, including by just threatening people with physical violence.

And I don't know. I mean, I understand why they go with the ending they go with, but honestly, for me, it's kind of a bummer that there is no comeuppance because you know, in other vacation movies, I guess they do the same thing. Well in European Vacation European and Vegas. They Vegas they do a little bit, but I mean in Christmas Vacation, it's all about the planting and the payoff. Like, I don't know, just to your point, Mike, I think it would have been better if they'd gotten there and just like they can't go in, then they have to figure out a way to work around that situation with comedy and putting Chevy Chase's character in that scenario where he can't just buy a gun a fake gun and threaten.

I'm like, I don't know. For me, I've never really resonated with the ending of this movie, just primarily because it feels, even for how contrived this movie can get at times, even it's a bit too far, it's a bit too contrived for me. The ending of the movie is. I'm curious what an alternative is. Them getting there and it being closed is fine, but what do you do.

You can't just end there, right, There's got to be something where he explodes in some way or others. So I'm trying to think of what's an alternative to that. I don't know. They kind of painted themselves in a corner unfortunately, like either you have them get there and it's closed and then they turn around and go home, or they get there, it's closed and then you have to show them on the rides. But for me, watching people riding rides is not entertaining.

Yeah, and not the way that the movie. Has been up until that point at. Least, and none of the endings actually or all that satisfying. The short story ending is kind of silly, and you know, tracking down going to find somebody that's selling Maps to the Stars homes and having his Walt Disney's home be listed on there and that's how they find his home, and that's kind of silly. And the abrupt ending from the script sounds kind of silly as well.

So I'm what would be a satisfying ending to that where he's he's got it explode because this whole time he's been for the most part, keeping it together through all the tribulations that they're going through. So what does he do? What can he do that would close the ending in a satisfying close the movie in a satisfying way. I feel that they did a really good job in that John Francis Daily version where the park is not closed, they go into the park. There's a little bit of an extraus scene there with oh Ron Livingston where Ed Helm has to have a fight with ed Livingston and then the people that Livingston is with have fights with the family.

YadA, YadA, YadA. They're the last people to go on this ride for the day. If they waited in line all day to go on this ride, so It's kind of like the second step of the vacation, like, took us all this time to get here, and now it's taking us all this time to get on this fricking ride. This guy wants to cut us off. We beat the shit out of him, and we get on the ride, and then the rides stops like in a loop the loop.

It stops midway through and they're like, oh, they'll rescue us within a few minutes. And then cut to night time and they're just finally getting off of the ride. Their whole day has been wasted and they're like in the the foil blanket type of thing. That to me was a better ending where it was just like, Okay, you made it to the park, you made it to the ride, you waited all fucking day for this ride, and then the ride fucks up. I thought that was a great like in your face for that.

Family, that is how you write that ending that way. Wait. I was recently at a themed park in LA and we were in line for the biggest ride. We waited for an hour and a half and then the ride broke five minutes from us getting on it not even exaggerating, and then the ride was broken for another hour and a half and we did not wait in line in additional hour and a half to ride the ride. So like a broken down wants to a ride that's broken down that day.

But that's but that's the thing. Like when I went to Universal Studios, that was the ride at Mario Land, which is the ride that you're there to go on if you're there for Mario Land, and I, you know, I see a lot of similarity here. Yeah, I've been to Disneyland and had you know, whatever ride was big at the time. That's what you're going there for on this trip, and it's not They never close parks to clean them though, that's my one. That's my one cinema sin.

For the episode at night, they have people doing that all night long, every day of the week. Yeah, what you could have done was have it be closed for a private event and then the entire thing is them sneaking in and finding a way to like get a disguise and sneak in. Like you could have done that too. I think that would have been funnier in execution than this, because yeah, a lot of the execution here is just what effectively comes down to mugging. For like ten minutes on the rides like Chevy, because again it's real footage of them really on the rides, so they're not really doing much.

They're just overreact acting to the rides or maybe underreacting, depending on how much they may or may not have liked it. But I feel like maybe this is the best way of putting it Wally World, the way that they show it and the way that it's presented, Like why the fuck are you going all the way out of your way to this place? That's the problem really is, you know, Disneyland. I understand why people go to California for Disneyland. It's fucking Disneyland.

This is not that. This is like, yeah, they probably have a theme park closer to them in Chicago better than this that they could have gone to. So I don't know, that's the the problem is the level at which they're claiming this place exists in this universe is not commiserate with the world that we see them in and the theme park that they're at, because again, it's it is ultimately isn't about that, but it ends up being about it because it kind of is so, at least for me, lackluster, like really lackluster. Yeah, at the time, Six Flags was not. It was like the step cousin of Disneyland.

You know they have. I've been on that rickety roller coaster too once in my life. But it got more so when they started getting you know, like they got the Batman ride and the Superman ride and started getting all these kind of high tech stuff. But at the time it wasn't very popular place to go, so, you know, I that made me think, though, the footage that they shot on the roller coasters is all real, and the trip, all all the stuff in the car is all real. Where no green screen crap in this movie at all.

I don't know. We'll get to the sequel at some point, the ed Hell movie later in the in the series here, but I really appreciated that that they were actually at the Grand Canyon, that they're actually in Sedona. They're in you know, that comfort camp place is a real place, and and so that added a nice touch. I do miss the thing that was in the script where Brian Doyle Murray puts on a moose costume and is lurking outside and then like six is head inside of their tent and they like start beating them with a baseball back and it's like, ah, this is the nature experience because he mentions the nature experience and they're like, you're just a fucking pervert that you know, sneaks up on the campers and stuff.

No, no, I'm not that. I love it well. And this is the time where families were taking these kinds of road trips to a place like this. So I mean, the point being with the kind of the cut stuff is like they they actually really reinforced how big of a deal Wallyworld was throughout the original version of the movie. And that's the other thing like this, They mentioned Wally World a lot, but the Wally World itself is not important clearly, And like the fact that the movie kind of tries to make it be the case is, I don't know, it could have been doing other things, like we've already alluded to.

And I think for me, I don't know. I think it would have been a better ending if they get there and it's closed and they can't go on the rides and they have to figure out an alternative way to do things. But yeah, I as good as Eddie b is in the end of the movie, it's just like, man, this is serving a different film completely is what it feels like, serving a movie that we haven't been watching, where the movie's been mean to the characters, like the characters don't deserve a happy ending at the end, Like isn't that kind of the point? Like that should have been the point, at least in my mind. I was just looking up King's Island.

Have you guys ever heard of King's Island before? It's a pretty big theme part now, yeah, yeah, that was like the one of the big ones. Because yeah, to your point from earlier, Mark, I mean, six Flags is definitely has been a thing for a long time. When I was growing up, we had King's Island down in Cincinnati, which is quite a hike, but then we've got Cedar Point, which is two hours away maybe, so yeah, going to Wali World, I mean that that is for the experience, you know. And also you don't show up at Disney and just buy tickets on your way in, you know, you make a whole thing out of that, you know.

Right, Yeah, that's that's a good point as well. You think they would have investigated the hours. And the as the old commercial went phone first. Yeah, I guess you just don't expect to. Get in park clone expects to be closed.

But you know they also get better deals if you buy your tickets at your credit union those kind of things. Yeah, right, that's the thing for me is like, yeah, it's also a little contrived that they get there and didn't realize it was going to be closed. Like really, that's like this isn't realize what they won like. Or realize that when they pull in and there is absolutely no one else in the parking lot. Yeah, do you know those pedal are the first ones that probably get there the night before, if not like the day before.

Yeah, it's going to be Yeah, of course this is nineteen eighty three, so you know, yeah, back when I just realized. Travel was so much cheaper, and you know, I just jump on a plane and go someplace. I was just looking up that I was curious about Cousin Dale, the guy that you were saying looked like Jason Hervey and he's the little dude that gets killed in taps h. I believe I just wanted to throw that out there. Speaking of Tom Cruise, somebody mentioned Tom Cruise earlier making those connections.

The immortality of Tom Cruise is what I was talking about. What's that scientology voodoo? Oh yeah, we didn't mention Jane Krakowski very young Jane Krakowski thirty rocks own God. I didn't realize that. Yeah, I first saw this, and then when they're talking about Arond the commentary, it's like, yeah, I know, I know that name.

I was thinking that it was the mom from Malcolm in the Middle, because she's got a name like that. Yeah. No, actually, and again like this is I think cousin Vicky ends up being recast in Vegas Vacation as well. It's not played by Jane Krakowski anymore. It's played by Oh, I forget the actress's name.

She kind of reminds me. She reminds me of Sherry Moon Zombie for whatever reason. Not necessarily a good comparison. But really not a bad actress. No, No, it's more of the look.

I mean, I guess the quality of the acting. Notwithstanding, I do like that this is a road trip movie. I don't think that I think that, you know, you've kind of already talked about John Francis Daily movie. I don't think that this movie in retrospect is mean enough. I think this movie kind of lets the Griswolds Get Off Light even compared to some of the other vacation movies.

But I don't know, this feels like such a quintessential summer movie, right, like just something about it, the tone that it has and the kind of the people that are in it. Everybody's having a good time. But it feels, I don't know, like this is a perfect in a lot of ways, a perfect road trip movie. Is it a perfect movie? Eh?

But is it a perfect road trip movie? Yeah? Because I would go as far as to say every other road trip, family road trip movie is aping this movie, like are we there yet? Stuff like that or r V with Robin Williams, like stuff like that exists because of how successful this movie was into a whole show about where the miller is. Yeah, yeah, there you go exactly a little different scenario, but it's still there going on a road trip not for fun, but the road trip of it is still part and parcel with the story.

And I think that is the start of that. Yeah, right, And you're gonna meet where people along the way and have strange adventures and you know, accidents and trouble and blah blah blah. Yeah, and national Lampoon. Vacation sets that tone and stage so well that I think, like I said, I think this for me is like the quintessential vacation movie, Vacation the thing you do, not the franchise, but it's not my favorite of the vacation movies. But I and again, I think there's a lot of that just behind the fact that Clark Griswold is not the character he will be, and the character that he will be is such a different character that what chevy Chase.

I mean, we're gonna be talking about Fletch here pretty quick, and then European Vacation comes right after Fletch, which is surprising because those in terms of something being like the chevy Chase role, that's in a lot of ways, Fletch is the chevy Chase role, but in a lot of ways so is Vacation. Like Vacation is Clark Griswold is the character chevy Chase will be known for. It's probably what they'll play in his in memoriam at the cat if they remember, will be something from Vacation, I'm assuming, if not, probably Christmas Fake. I think Christmas Vacation is the most well known one at this point on top of everything else, I think right about that. Yeah, he's either I think for most people he is either Fletch or Clark, right, maybe or maybe the guy from Saturn Lives.

It's it's funny because I think my father in law and my wife's uncle they do bits from these vacation movies, and I think to your point, they do mostly Christmas vacation. So, I mean, I've probably have heard them talk about genuine tomato catch up, but really they they do all of this stuff. And I'm like, I don't know what you guys are talking about, but I can just assume that it's a vacation movie. It's imminently relatable. Christmas Vacation is in a way that I'm not saying this one isn't.

But this one isn't necessarily trying to be relatable like the Christmas Vacation movie. It's about Christmas time. So there's a lot of things that a lot of us all do separately that we don't think about we're all doing separately, but they're commonplace traditions that so many families have. There's a time and a place where cross country road trips were a thing. They're not really anymore.

But this movie taps into that perfectly. I think. Again, even the problem, even the problematic third act aside not problematic for me, but just for not problematic for me, but for any other reason that it's just doesn't hang as well with the rest of the movie because the rest of the movie is so good. That's the problem. I mean, you have really one of the quintessential, if not the quintessential National Lampoons movie here too.

Top of everything else, we didn't really talk a whole lot about the National Lampoons of it all, but this is also this is the National Lampoons movie as far as I'm concerned. An Animal House, yeah. Yeah, but I mean Animal House I get. But again, animal House does it. This has more crossover appeal.

I feel like that Animal House does Animal House like there's a specificity to it that is probably lost now on a lot of people, and it doesn't resonate. But like I think even now a family road trip would still resonate with more people than yeah, yeah, yeah, an Animal House because Animal House is so specific, it's like a college thing. Like, Plus you have an outsider directing, and it wasn't a lampoon guy directing, right. Yeah, and I should say too that Harold Ramis's direction in this is very solid, especially for whatever reason, the shut of them right before James Keach posts them over. How the camera is on the outside and you can see the cars behind them, and you see the motors cycle, and then the camera moves over and you're still you're framed with clerk and then the motorcycle cop coming up on the one side.

I was like, ah, that's really nice. And to your point earlier too, as far as like so much of this is shot in a car to keep that looking fresh and to actually make it look you know, real and acceptable, this looks really good. Yeah, you kind of forget that the what it takes to film in a car and you've got, you know, reaction shots of the kids in the back that's a whole other setup with a whole other kind of cut open car. However, they do it and it's pretty seamless. So I really really appreciated and really noticed, you know, we're getting real scenery here, matching up pretty nicely for the most part.

No green screen, even even you know, the backlot, the Saint Louis backlot stuff. At least it's them in a car, and so it's nice to see that and not because everything these days, every movie or TV show I watch, if they're in a car, no matter the budget, even it's green screen. Yeah, and it's it's obvious, even as good as it, you know, the best possible green screen car stuff is obvious that it's not people in a car on a road, and so I really enjoyed that anymore. They also use that technology that these on Game of Thrones where it's like the giant screen that you're walking around in like the set is right. Yeah, so they do that now too, but yeah, there's Dimandalorian does that.

Yeah, there's you cannot replace real like scenery, and especially again like for a lot of people, this is the way that you traveled on a road trip from the Midwest was through places like Albuquerque and Phoenix, so you get to see that part of the world. And for someone like myself, that's where I road tripped as a kid, so that those parts of the movie resonate with with me. But yeah, picking a road trip movie is or a movie where people are expected to be in cars, You're like, you're you're kind of making it harder on yourself intentionally, like right, out of the gate. Yeah, they do a good job. And the ticking, the ticking time bomb of the movie of they have to get to Wally World at some point also helps.

Not not that the movie is full of tension, but it's that the idea that we've already alluded to, like winding up Chevy Chase and winding that spring tighter and tighter and tighter, and then seeing when it finally explodes kind of how how big is the explosion? And yeah, I think it's I think it's earned here. I look, we've been talking about Chevy Chase a lot on this show, obviously given that it's a Chevy Chase show, but it's been a while since we've had a great Chevy Chase performance. And I think that this this, even for my quibbles with it, like, this is a great performance from Chevy Chase. Yeah, it's one of my favorites.

It's there's very little of the hamming and the slapstick when he gets tied up in the gas hose. That's about the extent of it really, not a lot of falling down, not a lot of tripping and stumbling. So you know that the time element you just mentioned that and made me think that it's much more apparent in the short story, like we've got to be here, like he has it all mapped out, and it seems to get lost in the movie a little bit. And they don't even make it out of the house. Yeah, they lose the first day.

They don't even leave when they're supposed to. And then of course that aunt Edna's stuff and every stop that they make ends up taking longer having an issue, And it's not as played upon in the film. It's mentioned a few times, but you know, I mean he's probably taking off time or they're both taking off time work. So there is a time element to most vacations. You don't have an infinite amount of time to do this.

But they don't harp on it as much as okay, now we've lost another day. Now we're only going to have a data. He mentioned that at the end when they get to the park, basically that like this is it, this is our last as the stuff with. Aunt Edna really should because it throws them for a loop in the script, and as you're really thrown for much more of a loop of a loop in the movie as well, to be like we are losing time like this is going to take us two days out of our way to get down to cousin Dale or whoever that is, and yeah, they really And then also like, that's why we're leaving the body, because we can't wait around for him to come. Back, right.

Yeah. Oh that was the other thing that's in the script that's not in the movie, and and isn't dead. She wakes up when she's tied to that chair, and I was so glad that they cut that out because I was like, no, no, that just ruins the whole thing of her death and the crassness of leading her tied to a chair in her son's backyard. Yeah, the crassness of having her strap to the hood of. The car exactly.

I'm like sitting up, No, less have her, you know, wake. Up and be like, oh, Clark, I'm going to kid you, you know. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm That's the first I've heard of that, and I'm glad it's not like that in the movie. That is one of the few black comedy touches I've seen it described as a black comedy and I'm like, really, is it though, that that bit is leaving the dog and Aunt Edna, you know, has your dad killed anybody rusty? Well, I can't prove that.

It's like when I asked my kids where they wanted to go on vacation, would you say, kids, why? Yeah? And that's where I think that when we get to the new movie, I'll be so excited to talk about it because I think the new Vacation is so is meaner than this movie ever could have imagined. Seen it. Yeah, it's really mean.

Yeah, it's really it's mean the way this movie should have been. Like if this, I don't know what that mean. Like, I don't know why. Because when it first came out and they started showing the commercials, so I was like, Ooh, this looks good, and then not never watching it. My wife and I both wanted to watch it and we've never watched it, and then realizing that it's John Francis Daily now is even more of a draw to me because I love Game Night a lot.

We just watched it again last week and I really enjoyed that Dungeons and Dragons movie, which I was blown away by. I have no connection to Dungeons and Dragons whatsoever, but it's a kick in the pants man, it's fun. I was like, Oh yeah, he did the Vacation sequel. I gotta see that. It's mean to the characters that this in a way that this movie tries to be and it is not able to be at the time, Like the New Vacation movie is really a black comedy in terms of like how terribly the family is treated by just the plot as it as it was.

Yeah, and you kind of have to do that these days. Yeah, those because it's him and his partner, right, Jonathan Goldstein. And Yeah, the movies that those guys have done, some of them are just it's weird because they fascinate between the very wholesome comedies or like just wholesome movies like Lotty with the Chance of Meatballs to Spider Man Homecoming, you know, but then you get like Horrible Bosses. Yeah, oh okay, this amazing. Yeah.

Yeah see, I'm I need to tune in more to because I've seen a lot of those and enjoyed them and didn't realize that that was the connection until Game nine and going, oh wait, hey, it's the kid from Freaks and Geeks exactly. Yeah. Well, I mostly watched him on Bones, so getting to see him this interesting. He's great. John Francis Daily is great.

You know, I'm excited for when we finally get to that movie. It's a long way in the future. But yeah, yeah, me too. I might just have to watch it just before then instead of waiting until a Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Well we're going to be a little delayed here when it comes to even getting to European Vacation, right, because we've got month we're talking about Deal the Century, sorry, William Freakin Steal this Century, then Fletch, and then we're taking a little break and doing some Orange County before we come back with European Vacation. Yeah. True, Yeah, your European Vacation is further away than it seems. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about European Vacation because it's the one. Like I said, I remember watching the most as a kid, this one.

Yeah. I have really only seen this one a handful of times, this time included. And I know that there are people that this movie resonates with more than me. I don't know why it doesn't resonate with me as much as it does with them. Maybe it's it is an age thing, but I enjoy this movie.

But I will say that in terms of me being like, is this a good vacation movie? Yes? Is it my favorite one? No? And I think the reasons that it's not my favorite one is because the other movies are better suited towards what they're trying to get out of Chevy Chase.

He's, in my mind again, he's still too much like himself in this movie to be and seriously as the father of these people, or that they would even want to spend time with him, or that Beverly D'Angelo is just like I'm taking the kids and leaving, like you know, you can you can see why she'd want to not be with him in this movie. In the other movies, it seems like it Here it doesn't. That's the issue, like it's it's I don't know. This is a this is an important movie. We've kind of already alluded to the end of the Animal House National Lampoons of it all, but this is this is really just as important for National Lampoons as Animal Houses.

So, like Mike alluded to, on the next episode of the Chasing Chevy Chase podcast, we will be talking about Deal of the Century, a movie I haven't seen so nor have I if. I've seen it, it's been a long damn time, so it's going to be fresh for me. So until then, where can people find you and the things that you work on? Mark Begley, you can find me at whirding Way Media, this show Wake Up Heavy or Cambridge and with Sean What. About You Mike White were pretty much everything that I do is available over it Way Media as well, except for one thing that Chris and I do with their dear friend mister Richard HadAM, which is ranking on Bond, where every month we are looking at a Bond film and making our way slowly through that James Bond Chevy Chase.

Unfortunately those worlds don't mix, but yeah, maybe they could. It's been a while since I've seen Fletch So is he very James Bondian in that one? No, he's very much just check Chase. He's just Chevy. It's the most.

Yeah, I'm excited to talk about more, but yeah, no, he's the most Chevy Chase of any Chevy chase he's ever chevy chased in Fletch So, which is probably why I like that movie so much. Like Mike already mentioned, Weirdingway Media and Mark dot Com is where you can go to find all the things that I work on other than the one thing, which is also on my Patreon, Patreon dot com slash culture cast ten dollars and not. You get to listen to us talk about James Bond once a month, which if you're into it cool, If not, I mean, James Bond's not for everybody, So I totally get it. As for this show, yeah, see, I get it. I you know, I totally get it.

As for this show, like rate and review it on iTunes please, that is where most people listen to the show. Even if it's not where you listen to it, head on over to iTunes and give the show a rate and review because that's where most people are finding it and that's where rating and reviewing it helps. Yeah, and as always, big thanks to Mike White for putting the album, artwork and everything else together for the show. And we'll catch you on the next episode.