Not suitable under 13; parental guidance to 13 (violence, coarse language, sexual references)
This topic contains:
Children under 13 | Not suitable due to violence, coarse language and sexual references. |
Children aged 13 | Parental guidance recommended due to coarse language. |
Children aged 14 and over | Ok for this age group. |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation |
Classification: | M |
Consumer advice lines: | Medium level coarse language |
Length: | 95 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Clark Griswold (Chevvy Chase) is getting ready for Christmas, which he wants to make perfect for his wife Ellen (Beverely D’Angelo) and children Audrey (Julette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki), however, nothing goes according to plan. First, they crash the car bringing home the Christmas tree, then the Christmas lights fail to work, causing Clark to get extremely angry. Next, the grandparents all come to stay, resulting in Audrey having to share a bed with her brother. Then, Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and family arrive in their RV, with their Rottweiler. To cap it off, comes Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) and his wife Bethany (Mae Questel). Lewis manages to set the Christmas tree alight with his cigar, causes an explosion with a gas leak, and completely wrecks the house. With everything in disarray, Clark realises Christmas is not about the gifts, the tree and the turkey, but about the magic of the Christmas spirit.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Christmas; Extended family dynamics.
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
There is a lot of violence in this movie, mostly done for laughs, including:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a slapstick comedy about everything going wrong at Christmas time. The realisation is that Christmas isn’t about all the trimmings but about the magic and spirit of Christmas. There is, however, a lot of coarse language in this movie and sexual references, which makes it unsuitable for children under 13. Best suited for teens 14 and above.
The main message from this movie is that Christmas doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s enough to have family together despite the chaos.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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