Movie review – “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983) ****

Made when John Hughes kept the venom in his scripts all the way through. So much of it has the whiff of authenticity about cross-country family vacations – the crappy motels, squabbling kids, moronic relatives you have to visit, even the fantasy of the hot chick you meet cross country. Hughes really pushes the envelope here – the fate of Aunt Edna and her dog, the rustic relatives. A deserved classic.