National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is forced, obvious, and sometimes offensive. The slapstick humor mildly works but there isn't much emotion to solidify it. Characters are flat, interchangeable, and superfluous. Its flimsy story is a weak excuse for repetitive jokes. There's blunt exposition, contrived dialogue, a dislikable protagonist, illogical plot points, thin payoff, and an insincere ending. The acting shows spurts of comedic timing, physicality, and mania, but also feels smug, stilted, one-note, and distant. Overall, Christmas Vacation is formulaic, unearned, dated, tired, and careless. It might be considered a Christmas staple, but it's not a skilled movie.
Technically, Christmas Vacation is aimless. Its tone wildly swings between saccharine and silly (without vulnerability or wit). The cinematography is mostly basic and plain. Its editing delivers fine timing, but with arbitrary and uneven structure. The production design offers simple Christmas suburbia. Its music has an original intro song and generic scoring. The sound uses cartoonish stings, brief action, mediocre ADR, and decent emphasis. Its effects add animation, stunts, makeup, and pyrotechnics. The cast possesses fame, depth, and adequate comedic chops. Ultimately, Christmas Vacation doesn't provide much and hasn't aged well (if it was ever good to begin with).
Writing: 4/10
Direction: 4/10
Cinematography: 5/10
Acting: 6/10
Editing: 5/10
Sound: 6/10
Score/Soundtrack: 6/10
Production Design: 5/10
Casting: 8/10
Effects: 7/10
Overall Score: 5.6/10
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