National Lampoon was an American humor magazine that ran from 1970 to 1998. The magazine started out as a spinoff from the Harvard Lampoon. National Lampoon magazine reached its height of popularity and critical acclaim during the 1970s, when it had a far-reaching effect on American humor and comedy. The magazine spawned films, radio, live theater, various sound recordings, and print products including books. Many members of the creative staff from the magazine subsequently went on to contribute creatively to successful media of all types.
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American independent teen coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. It stars Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. The film tells the story of five teenagers from different high school cliques who serve a Saturday detention overseen by their authoritarian vice-principal.
National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller. It stars John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Thomas Hulce, Stephen Furst, and Donald Sutherland. The film is about a trouble-making fraternity whose members challenge the authority of the dean of the fictional Faber College.
John Wilden Hughes Jr. was an American filmmaker. Hughes began his career in 1970 as an author of humorous essays and stories for the National Lampoon magazine. He went on to Hollywood to write, produce and sometimes direct some of the most successful live-action comedy films of the 1980s. He directed such films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, and Uncle Buck; and wrote the films National Lampoon's Vacation, Mr. Mom, Pretty in Pink, The Great Outdoors, and Home Alone.
Leonard Michael Maltin is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of film capsule reviews, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, published annually from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film critic on Entertainment Tonight from 1982 to 2010. He currently teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and has appeared regularly on Turner Classic Movies, and hosts the weekly podcast Maltin on Movies. He has written articles for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Variety, Playboy and TV Guide. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and votes for films to be selected for the National Film Registry.
National Lampoon's Vacation, sometimes referred to as simply Vacation, is a 1983 American road trip comedy film directed by Harold Ramis starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut with special appearances by Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, Miriam Flynn, James Keach, Eugene Levy and Frank McRae.
Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of films Hughes would direct centering on teenage life. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, earning $23.6 million against a $6.5 million budget, and launched Ringwald to fame.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American Christmas comedy film and the third installment in National Lampoon magazine's Vacation film series. Christmas Vacation was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, written and co-produced by John Hughes, and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Randy Quaid with supporting roles by Miriam Flynn, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Juliette Lewis, and Johnny Galecki, and special appearances by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicholas Guest, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Natalia Nogulich.
Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation is a 1992 American animated comedy film from Warner Bros. Animation and Amblin Entertainment, originally intended for theatrical exhibition. Featuring the regular characters from the Fox Kids animated television program Tiny Toon Adventures, the plot follows their summer vacation from school, mainly focused on Babs and Buster going downriver, Plucky and Hamton going to a world-famous amusement park, and Fifi in search of her favorite movie star.
The Wraith is a 1986 independently made American action-fantasy film, produced by John Kemeny, written and directed by Mike Marvin, and starring Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, Nick Cassavetes, and Randy Quaid. The film was theatrically released November 21, 1986, on just 88 screens in the United States by New Century Vista Film Company.
Slaughter High is a 1986 slasher film written and directed by George Dugdale, Mark Ezra and Peter Litten, and starring Caroline Munro, Simon Scuddamore, Carmine Iannaconne, Donna Yeager, and Sally Cross. An international co-production between the United States and the United Kingdom, the film follows a group of adults responsible for a prank gone wrong on April Fool's Day who are invited to a reunion at their defunct high school where a masked killer awaits inside.
O.C. and Stiggs is a 1987 American teen comedy film directed by Robert Altman, based on two characters that were originally featured in a series of stories published in National Lampoon magazine. The film stars Daniel H. Jenkins and Neill Barry as the title characters. Other members of the cast include Paul Dooley, Jane Curtin, Martin Mull, Dennis Hopper, Ray Walston, Louis Nye, Melvin Van Peebles, Tina Louise, Cynthia Nixon, Jon Cryer and Bob Uecker.
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie is a 1979 American animated comedy package film directed by Chuck Jones, consisting of a compilation of classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts and newly animated bridging sequences hosted by Bugs Bunny. The bridging sequences, which had been produced in 1978, show Bugs at his home, which is cantilevered over a carrot-juice waterfall. The film was released to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Bugs Bunny.
Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers is an American film released in 1984, the sixth feature-length film starring the comedy duo Cheech and Chong. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong star as the two twin brothers in a parody of various film adaptations of the 1844 Alexandre Dumas novella, The Corsican Brothers.
National Lampoon's Movie Madness is a 1982 American comedy film produced by National Lampoon as the second film from the magazine. The film was originally produced under the title National Lampoon Goes to the Movies; completed in 1981, the film was not released until 1982, and was reedited and retitled as Movie Madness.
Joy of Sex is a 1984 American sex comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge. It was written by Kathleen Rowell and J.J. Salter, based on the sex manual by Alex Comfort.
Chuck Jones: Extremes & Inbetweens – A Life in Animation is a 2000 American television documentary film directed by Margaret Selby. The film chronicles the career of legendary Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies director, Chuck Jones. The film features interviews with Jones himself, as well as animators Matt Groening, Eric Goldberg, and John Lasseter, critics Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin, film directors Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Joe Dante, and comedians Whoopi Goldberg, Lorne Michaels, Robin Williams, and June Foray, as well as others. The film was originally broadcast as part of the Great Performances series on November 22, 2000 on PBS, and later released to VHS and DVD by Warner Home Video on October 22, 2002.
The Last Reunion is a 1982 action drama directed by Jay Wertz. It stars Leo Fong, Cameron Mitchell, Hal Bokar, Philip Baker Hall, Stack Pierce and Vic Silayan. During the second world war, a young Japanese boy witnesses his parents murdered by American soldiers and years later takes his revenge. The film is also known as Revenge of the Bushido Blade.
