National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Two words: Randy Quaid. That’s it. That’s the blurb. No, but really, Quaid’s portrayal of Cousin Eddie, the unfiltered, trailer-dwelling, black sheep of the Griswold clan, provides some of the greatest moments in all of the National Lampoon vacation movies, but shines especially bright, er, dim, in the franchise’s Christmas entry. Per usual, the well-intentioned, potentially cursed patriarch, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), strives to give the gift of the idyllic Christmas for his family — from the comically oversized Christmas tree he insists on installing, to the ambitious light display that causes a city-wide outage, to the swimming pool he put a down payment on in anticipation of a substantial work bonus that tragically ends up being a subscription to a Jelly of the Month club. In true Griswold fashion, however, Clark and company manage to turn jelly into golden memories, but not without an explosive, relatable, work-related rant and, well, explosions.