National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Filmed in standard widescreen, the 1.78:1 anamorphic picture is good-looking without being perfect. Nighttime scenes have an eerie, cold atmosphere while indoor scenes are warm and cosy looking. There is some problematic grain every now and again that's a bit distracting if you're the kind of person that notices it. Otherwise, you'll be pretty happy with the transfer.

The Dolby 2.0 surround soundtrack isn't that great. You'll have to turn up your decoder pretty high to get a good effect out of it. A remix in 5.1 would have helped a bit but the sound design isn't that sophisticated. Neither a good nor terrible effort.

There's a commentary by director Jeremiah S. Chechik, Producer Matty Simmons, actors Beverly D'Angelo, Miriam Flynn, Johnny Galecki and Randy Quaid. It's a bit quiet at times and it's a shame Chevy Chase couldn't have joined in. Better than nothing, I suppose.

A trailer is the only other extra on this DVD, which is stupid considering that a picture on the back cover is a still of a deleted scene and they didn't even bother putting any on the DVD. But I am led to believe that there could be an easter egg. So if you feel like hunting go for it.

A pretty poor Special Edition either way.