Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

National Lampoon's Vacation 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

I'm so excited!

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 23, 2023

Harold Ramis' 1983 comedy classic National Lampoon's Vacation, the episodic family road adventure that spawned a handful of sequels, finally arrives on UHD courtesy of Warner Bros., predictably juuust in time for its 40th anniversary. This long-awaited catalog release was nonetheless beaten to the 4K punch by Christmas Vacation over six months ago and, while it certainly offers a welcome A/V improvement, it strangely doesn't include a copy of the 30th Anniversary Blu-ray and the extras that came with it. Is it still recommended? The moose out front should’ve told you.

For a synopsis of the film, see either Marty Liebman's review of the 2010 Blu-ray or Michael Reuben's 2013 review of the 30th Anniversary Blu-ray; please note that both feature the same VC-1 master and lossless 1.0 audio, but different bonus features. I rate Vacation slightly higher than my fellow reviewers, if only because I find it to be more consistently funny than most comedies from this era and a very close second behind its ubiquitous holiday sequel.

National Lampoon's Vacation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: This review's screenshots are not sourced from the 4K disc; no Blu-ray is included, so these temp shots are actually from an older upscaled DVD. Relax and breathe easy, folks: the UHD looks much, much better than what you seen here, and it's actually in the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio for the first time on home video.

Any Blu-ray sourced from a DVD-era master, let alone those using the older VC-1 codec, is bound to be improved on UHD and National Lampoon's Vacation is certainly no different. It's advertised only as a "new 4K restoration" but one can only assume that a fresh OCN scan was used, as this pleasingly consistent 2160p/HDR transfer features a much more striking amount of fine detail with clearly stronger filmic textures. Eagle-eyed viewers will be able to spot trace amounts of "grain management", but it's absolutely not an issue on the whole since Vacation's fine-grain stock is only occasionally flattened out during a handful of brief nighttime scenes. WB's tasteful application of HDR plays nice with the film's mostly natural palette, with occasional room for the "pop" of bold hues like Christie Brinkley's red Ferrari, the Griswold's metallic pea station wagon, and the colorful signage on display at Walley World. For the most part, the film's mostly earth-toned presentation looks accurate to its source without the usual orange-and-teal push that plagues most heavier HDR applications, including some of the more garish flesh tones seen during Christmas Vacation. High dynamic range also aids several of the older master's more "contrasty" moments, such as the station wagon's eight headlights cutting though darkened city streets. It's a very solid and perhaps surprisingly purist-friendly effort, smoothly encoded on a dual-layered 66GB disc and almost entirely free of compression-related issues such as banding and posterization. If this is the main (only?) reason you're buying this release, I can't imagine you'll be disappointed.

National Lampoon's Vacation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's less to say about the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix other than that it offers a clean, two-channel split of the original mono with a decently higher degree of sonic detail and better dynamic range at similar volume levels. Stray music cues, such as the all-encompassing presence of Lindsey Buckingham's soaring "Holiday Road" and June Pointer's "Little Boy Sweet" heard during Christie Brinkley's Ferrari drive-by (a home video replacement for The Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited" which still hasn't been fixed, much to the dismay of our forum members), enjoy a decently weighty presence within format limitations. Dialogue remains relatively crisp and easy to understand, with the mix as a whole sounding like a pleasingly polished era-specific track that shows no reasonable room for improvement.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH) are included during the main feature only.

National Lampoon's Vacation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Get it? There's no meat here.

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with new (but not exactly improved) cover artwork; the legendary Boris Vallejo poster, which this disc uses for the menu interface, is exclusive to Best Buy's Steelbook. Sadly, the bonus features are underwhelming, a sizable step down from the 30th Anniversary Blu-ray (which included, among other things, a feature-length TV documentary about the film) that would've made an easy pack-in.

• Audio Commentary - This feature-length track brings together director Harold Ramis; actors Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron; and Producer Matty Simmons. It's a solid if not slightly underwhelming track and has been included on all previous Blu-ray editions of the film.

National Lampoon's Vacation 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Harold Ramis' National Lampoon's Vacation is a solidly entertaining comedy classic with memorable performances, scenes, and locations, all neatly tied together by a steady, episodic flow that unsurprisingly spawned several sequels. Warner Bros.' long-awaited 4K edition of the film gives it a near-definitive A/V presentation but totally botches the bonus features; that, combined with the lack of a new or old 1080p copy, means that pairing this disc with the 30th Anniversary Blu-ray will give you the best of both worlds. Recommended for 4K adopters only, obviously.