National Lampoon-a-Palooza!

Now that it’s Thanksgiving, the official start of the holiday season is here!  Of course, one of the most popular movies that folks revisit at this time of year is Christmas Vacation.  Actually…technically…the film is called National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  

The National Lampoon was originally a magazine, but in 1978 they decided to take their brand of humor to Hollywood with National Lampoon’s Animal House.  Many more Lampoon films followed, including somewhat forgotten films like National Lampoon’s Movie Madness and National Lampoon’s Class Reunion, as well as classics like the aforementioned Vacation series.

Into the 90’s and early 2000’s, there was still the occasional Lampoon flick showing up in theaters.  Film’s like National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 and National Lampoon’s Senior Trip were a few of the flicks that came our way.  Probably the last moderate box office hit they had was National Lampoon’s Van Wilder in 2002.  But during this time, all the way up to just a few years ago, there was a regular stream of film’s that bore the National Lampoon name that, for the most part, were direct-to-video titles.  Many assume these films to be less than stellar, and rightfully so.  I, however, decided to find out for myself.  So, for the next several days, Forgotten Films will be taking a look at some of the forgotten titles that have come out of the National Lampoon.  I’ll warn you right now, it’s been a long time since Animal House, and it shows in many of these films.  I’ll even be breaking my personal rule and referring to these films with their full titles…including the possessive.  I always hate that sort of thing!  John Carpenter’s this…John Carpenter’s that!  Tim Burton’s blah blah blah.  Give me a break!

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this journey into the dark corners of National Lampoon’s film catalog.  I took a bullet for you on many of these, so you better appreciate it!  Join us tomorrow for our first review!

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