Christmas Marathon: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

I finally finished National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

The last weekend, I watched a part of this before falling asleep halfway through. Its been happening a lot. Work stress tends to do that.  I made time for it last night and wrapped it up.  This is my first time seeing this so I’m not exactly sure what to expect. I have been avoiding it because it really doesn’t look like my sort of movie.  Like I’m sure I’ll appreciate it but I won’t be in love with it or anything.

Lets see if its what I expected!

Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik

Cast: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, Randy Quaid, Doris Roberts, John Randolph

This year, Clark Griswald and his family are hosting the Christmas celebrations for the rest of the family.  Clark has everything planned for the holidays except as the family arrives, things start going off track.  With his mind set on the annual bonus, he tries to keep his spirits high and bring the Christmas spirit to his family.

I’m not exactly sure how to review this one.  What to talk about?

For one, maybe because I watched it in two sittings, I’m wasn’t exactly impressed with anything. It was exactly what I would expect.  Wait, that makes me sound like I didn’t like it.  Its more like I was entertained for the most part but also slightly indifferent.  Maybe its just not my type of humor? It was a little silly and witty.  John Hughes did write the script and I’m a huge fan.  There’s quirky humor that I really like.  It was pretty fun. I guess its kind of crazy to watch how a family can be dysfunctional to that extent. There is A LOT of foreshadowing so by the end, you you guess what disaster is going to happen next and still the reactions are funny.

Christmas movies really don’t get any more Christmas-y than this one.  There’s the whole chopping down the tree to the impressively lit house, eggnog, family dinner, waiting for Santa Claus, Christmas shopping and the likes.  That is pretty great. We’ve exactly had a really out of control Christmas so I’m not exactly sure this happens but I mean, we do watch movies to break out of our normalcy.  Even if I could see what was going to happen in that scene, there is still an irresistible laugh out loud moments.

I’m guessing now is a good time to end this because its really going nowhere.

Point is: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a very festive Christmas movie and it has some laugh out loud moments. I’m not incredibly impressed by it nor will it go on my absolutely favorite must-watch Christmas movie but it has its own charm and I do have to admit that at various parts between the weird and quirky moments, I did buy  into that charm.

Do you like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? What are your thoughts? 

The Right Kind of Wrong (2013)

Finally getting back to my long list of backlogged movie reviews to write.

In my first flight to Vancouver, I ended up watching an always wonderful Mary Poppins (which I don’t think I reviewed yet oddly) and the very mind-boggling Enemy (review HERE). After that whole transfer and running to catch my transfer, I finally had a very empty 12 hour flight to Hong Kong.  It was great stuff because I got to stretch out and enjoy a few movies comfortably.  If Enemy taught me anything, its that I needed to watch something less intense.  As I shifted through the many more selections on the long haul flights, I landed on Canadian productions and The Right Kind of Wrong.  I’m sure a lot of us has wondered how Ryan Kwanten will do nNOT being the idiot in the form of Jason Stackhouse.  Of course, there was Dead Silence before this, which I reviewed HERE! Horror is not my forte so I can’t judge his acting from that but rom-coms are totally in my ballpark so I was excited.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Director: Jeremiah Chechik

Cast: Ryan Kwanten, Sara Canning, Ryan McPartlin, Kristen Hager, Catherine O’Hara

Leo (Ryan Kwanten), a recently divorced dishwasher who is ridiculed by his ex-wife’s, Julie (Kristen Hager) success by launching a blog called “Why You Suck” about his flaws and shortcomings when they were together. Refusing to look at these “obviously” false accusations, he lives life by himself the best he can until one day, he meets Colette (Sara Canning), a soon to be wed girl at her wedding.  He crashes it and professes his love for her, pointing out that he is in fact the right man for her. The pursuit continues after the marriage is finalize even after the resistance of Colette’s husband (Ryan McPartlin).  The question now is will he succeed in letting Colette see what he does?

Romantic comedies are almost always formulaic but regardless, the successful ones will pull out that feel good element with the right characters and the decent premise and even the good enough humor to keep the audience watching.  The Right Kind of Wrong is definitely not the best romantic comedy I’ve seen (Rotten Tomatoes rating would say that its horrible), but I’ve also seen much worse.  There is nothing wrong with being a dreamer and as outrageous as the premise of this is and probably wrong on many levels for wanting to be the cause of a divorce.  There are certain aspects that I did like quite a bit.

What is fresh about The Right Kind of Wrong is the idea of a man chasing after an woman and doing absolutely stupid things.  Most of the time, its the other way around.  Most rom-coms are about some woman being the love-crazed person that tries to find her love and does some desperate thing.  I appreciate the premise this one was putting out even if it was a little out there.  Leo Palamino was technically nearing the behaviors of a stalker because he would track down how to approach Colette but at the same time, Colette is a married woman so to start by trying to change her mind is already a wrong thing.  I’m guessing thats why you have The Right Kind of Wrong to justify the movie title.

Aside from the unusual premise, it was also filmed in the very beautiful Banff in Alberta, Canada.  The scenery and the setting was simply lovely to look at. With its hills, mountains and nature, it really was a treat to watch.

I’m not going to hate on this one despite its absurdity at times.  The story had a fresh attempt and it did give me a few laughs here and there, the cast was who won me over.  Ryan Kwanten was pretty good at being Leo Palomino.  He was a guy that did a lot of weird stuff to get a girl but between all that, he also went through an awakening of his own. Well, its normal and expected because he’s just doing the exact same thing a girl in a romantic comedy would.  Still, I thought it was entertaining to watch at the very least and I think he brought a lot more life to his character Leo than maybe the script even would’ve had.

Next up are the lovely ladies in this movie.  Our leading lady is Sara Canning.  I could not remember where I had seen her before while I watching this one (and I keep blanking out).  *checks IMDB* Right, she was in Vampire Diaries for a few seasons.  I think the best part of this one was Sara Canning.  She’s a pretty good actress all on her own.  She brings some good charisma to her character as Colette.  Moving right along, who can ignore the brief role of Catherine O’Hara as Colette’s mother.  Honestly, she has some of the most awkward but pretty funny lines in this one.  Her appearance, her encouragement to Leo and her re-bonding with her daughter brought on a bit of humor and I think I grew to like her character a lot.

Overall, I’m not saying this is a full-on winner and more than a month later as I write this up, I’m not even sure I remember everything that went on (which isn’t usually a good thing) but I do remember my feelings towards it.  Maybe it was being trapped in a flight that made me enjoy this more than I probably would but I thought The Right Kind of Wrong was okay.  It gave me a feel laughs, a nice setting and some engaging cast.  It kind of lost its steam nearing the end when things got a little predictable but it still has a charm.

Just remember, romantic comedies are pretty much, comedies so they can’t please everyone easily unless you like its humor.  But I’m sure you all know it already 🙂

Did you see The Right Kind of Wrong? Did you think it was more right or wrong? What do you think of Ryan Kwanten?