One of my favorite times of the year has always been Christmas. It is a time for families to get together and enjoy several days to relax as a family, play card games, and watch movies. Before my wife and I get together with our families, we always pop in Christmas Vacation. It is one of our all-time favorite Christmas movies. I can honestly say that I can watch it every year at least once and it will never get old.

Christmas Vacation is about the Griswold family coming together again after two previous Vacation installments (Vacation & European Vacation). It begins with a trip to find the perfect Christmas tree. Clark (Chevy Chase) never does things the easy way! He will not settle for anything less than perfection. His wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) supports her husband's ideas as much as possible, but their two kids Audrey and Rusty (Juliette Lewis & Johnny Galecki) would rather be home then out finding the "one." The journey has only just begun as we follow the Griswold family back home and watch them try to host the ultimate, fun-filled Christmas. This becomes a bit more difficult with both sets of bickering parents visiting, an eccentric, uninvited cousin (Randy Quaid), dogs, cats and even a squirrel thrown into the mix.

Clark already had a lot on his plate at work (worrying about his Christmas bonus) and now at home, so to get away from the family chaos he decides to decorate the outside of the house with the best Christmas display ever. He basically goes on a rampage to make sure that his house will make the family proud. While trying to do this, he runs into many problems involving everything from big ladders and staple guns to decorative reindeer and thousands of non-functioning Christmas lights.

Christmas Vacation is a movie about the struggle to go above and beyond for family. Clark is always doing everything he can to make sure that his family has the best "Griswold Family Christmas" possible. He might be over-the-top most of the time, but on the inside he is a hardworking guy who is just trying to make his family happy.

The movie itself is a classic. There are many moments that you will not be able to stop laughing because they are so real. For instance, Clark's road rage with two hillbillies trying to interfere with the perfect Christmas tree search... his constant struggle to get the Christmas lights to work...sledding on slippery saucers...ruined Christmas dinners...we've all been there before! That said, there are some times when it does move a little slow, but it definitely doesn't diminish the laughter that will surely follow. We go on a wild ride with the Griswold family and definitely experience the "Griswold Family Christmas." There are pieces that everyone can relate to: from bickering parents, to untangling Christmas lights, to unwelcome family, to nosy neighbors. Christmas Vacation is a must see for everyone, especially around Christmas.

The DVD

Video:

The Griswold's deserve better then this. Christmas Vacation struggles with the transfer. Not just a little, but a lot. Throughout most of the movie I felt like I was watching a standard definition DVD with minimal upgraded quality...basically it looked like I was watching it in simulated high-def on TNT. There wasn't a single scene that gave me that "wow" factor that we all want to have with these new formats.

Sound:

Here is another letdown for this release of Christmas Vacation. We are given a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. That is it, nothing more. Again, I felt like I was watching TV and had to emulate sound into all of my speakers. It would have been nice to get at least a 5.1 Dolby Digital Track that would have highlighted this movie very well.

Extras:

Behind the Story: Commentary by Randy Quaid, Beverly D'Angelo, Johnny Galecki, Miriam Flynn, Director Jeremiah Chechik, & Producer Matty Simmons. The commentary is very rough. Beverly D'Angelo does a lot of talking at random times. She just chimes in at very weird moments and then starts laughing. I was actually quite bored watching the commentary and I didn't really learn anything because they all just talked about their experience and how they laughed at that scene and what went wrong. Then when they saw themselves they would point out that they saw themselves. Probably the most annoying part is that several times they actually call the characters on the screen by the wrong name.

They do talk about how some of the stunts were done (when they drive the car under the semi-truck). But aside from a couple insights, we get a commentary that leaves much to be desired.

Final Thoughts:

Christmas Vacation has always been on of my favorite Christmas movies. That being said, I wish I could recommend this one to buy, but unfortunately I can't. The video is lacking, the sound is sub-par, and even the extras are nothing special. If you don't own this movie on DVD already, then go buy it right now...you don't need the video and sound quality to be great because this is a classic movie. If you already own this one on DVD, skip the Blu-Ray version.