National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Special Edition)
December 2003 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Calling a DVD a "special edition" implies, at face value, that there's something "special" about this "edition" of the film. I know that seems obvious, but judging by National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, I thought maybe it need to be spelled out to Warner Home Video.

The Griswold family is looking forward to a nice, quiet Christmas at home: no death-dealing trips across the country, no terrible jaunts through Europe, just a turkey, a tree, and some eggnog. But as family guests begin to arrive and an expected Christmas bonus fails to, the always-optimistic Clark finds that Jack Frost may be nipping at his nose, but disaster is nipping at his heels.

Having never driven cross-country on a trip (didn't that go out in the '50s?) like the Griswolds did in the original Vacation, I always found Christmas Vacation to be the better of the two palatable National Lampoon's Vacation installments. The less said about European or Vegas, the better. This story of holiday insanity is surprisingly subtle for a film of this type: Timing and nuance are just as important as flatulence and pratfalls.

Though the cast is large, three characters stand out. Chevy Chase brings his usual wild-eyed good nature to paternal Clark, making sure to throw in a dash of the extreme physical comedy that audiences love -- Chase has never been afraid of putting himself in harm's way to entertain, as evidenced by public reaction to his early '90s talk show.

Beverly D'Angelo deserves special mention for being the only cast member, other than Chase, to appear in all four Vacation films. Though the kids have been through the revolving door, and Cousin Eddie didn't join the family in Europe, Ellen has always been by Clark's side, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health. D'Angelo gives Ellen a sort of long-suffering grace, while still demonstrating the sort of wry humor that would make her the perfect matriarch for this clan.

Speaking of Cousin Eddie, Randy Quaid does a great job as the gritty, dirty reminder of the world from which much of the Griswold family hails. His loudmouthed, thickheaded "tornado bait" attitude is a brash change from the smooth-sailing Clark. It's too bad that Quaid has lately been relegated to things like the short-lived The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire projects in which his gifts are largely wasted.

The one redeeming quality of this disc's picture is that a grainy, dusty widescreen picture has replaced the grainy, dusty pan-and-scan picture of the previous version. No sort of obvious cleanup was done for this disc, leaving us with a picture quality that might be a little better than VHS tapes, but not much.

The reds, naturally predominant in a Christmas movie, often have a tendency to bleed slightly and the flesh tones seem a little too cyan. Though the overbearing reds could be an attempt at giving the film a gauzy, nostalgic glow, improving them would have made the skin even darker, while evening out the faces would have caused all the red detail to bleed further into flat, bland territory.

The only extra on the disc is a full-length commentary with Randy Quaid, Beverly D'Angelo, Johnny Galecki, Miriam Flynn, director Jeremiah Chechik, and producer Matty Simmons -- it seems Chevy Chase and Juliette Lewis were too busy to contribute. The track is fairly amusing, though the discussion about deleted scenes just serves to highlight their absence from this startlingly empty "special" edition.

Since Christmas Vacation is a Warner film, the DVD comes in a cardboard "snapper" case -- The Matrix Reloaded seems to be the only Time Warner title so far to warrant a plastic "keep" case. The "Special Edition" printed on the cover really just begs the question: In what world does converting from full screen to wide and giving us a single commentary track count as anything special?

Christmas Vacation is a terrifically funny movie, earning a spot next to A Christmas Story in the anti-Wonderful Life/Miracle on 34th Street pantheon. While those films and their "feel-good" ilk present a rosy, comforting idea of the season, the only glow here is a stray match igniting the dry Christmas tree and turning it into a smoldering ruin. It's a shame that such an enjoyable, effectively satirical film has received a sub-standard presentation the second time around.

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