National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (4k UHD + Blu-Ray + DVD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Nov 17th, 2022
Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn
Written By: John Hughes
Directed By: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Studio: Warner Bros
Buy On Amazon.com
“Holy shit! Where’s the Tylenol?!” This is the one movie that can’t be skipped over during the holiday season for me. If there was one Christmas movie that needed an upgrade bigtime, it was this. The Blu-Ray and HDX streaming versions were so overly grainy but thankfully this has been remastered to 4k UHD.
Like the other movies that Warner Bros just released on 4k, not really going into the plot since people should know by now what the hell the movie is about. I do have to say the title is very silly though because it wasn’t a vacation, right? It would be one thing if Clark was home for a “staycation” and not working during the holidays but he was. I guess they needed the characters to tie in with the other vacation movies?
For all the Christmas movies that are out there, this is Top 3, or at the very top of movies I quote during the holidays, or all-year round too. There’s so many classic lines that I quote all year round. There are scenes that still make me belly laugh from seeing them, like I’ve seen it for the first time again. The opening cartoon is great and the opening road rage scene is something I could certainly relate to. The stuff with Clark and the Christmas lights, falling off the roof and knocking out the power reminds me of my Dad trying to give my family a great Christmas. The family dinner and everything around is also classic and memorable. A holiday season doesn’t go bye without watching this at least once.
Video quality looks excellent and the remastered look is the reason to get this! For a movie that looked not the greatest on DVD and Blu-Ray, this is a massive upgrade. There’s still some noticeable grain in shots but it looks sooooo much better than I’ve ever seen it. There are some shots that still look like vaseline was smeared on the lenses like establishing shots of the stores when Clark is talking to that attractive worker. It’s just the way the movie was shot and not much else you can do with it.
The only disappointing thing about this were the extras. There’s audio commentary that we got on previous editions before. There’s no behind the scenes, a retrospective look back type of deal. Nothing like that.
For me, Christmas Vacation is one of my favorite holiday movies, maybe even my absolute favorite. Extremely funny to this day, very quotable and I could relate with some of the stuff that happened in the movie. The 4k remastering is the reason to get this, because it’s definitely worth buying this if you love the movie like I do.
Features:
Audio commentary
trailer
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (74.98 Mbps)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Spanish, Dutch
Bottom Line: Christmas Vacation will always be one of my favorite holiday movies
Running Time: 97 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
