Chevy Chase’s 7 Best Movies, Ranked

CNN Films’ I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not has gotten its subject back into the limelight, and perhaps not in a way he would have liked. Basically, every story his co-stars and directors have told about him over the decades are confirmed, every character trait they didn’t care for put on full display. But the fact remains that he was one of the 1970s and ’80s biggest comedy stars. In fact, there’s an argument to be made he was one of the 1980s’ biggest stars period. He represented a devil may care lifestyle, an ability to smirk at any and every situation and just breeze through it. Well, save for when he was playing Clark Griswold. Clark never breezed through his stressful situations as much as he pushed through them with a smile until there was a breakdown.

So, with the doc making headlines, what better time could there be to look back at his career and pick the best movies he made after leaving Saturday Night Live midway through its second season? What were the top films he starred in between that unceremoniously early departure and his tumultuous exit from Community? Let’s find out.

7) Hot Tub Time Machine

This is the only movie on this list that came out after Chase’s run as a leading man. Hence, it’s the only one where he’s not top-billed.

But, as the repairman who seems to enjoy playing mind games more than actually fixing hot tubs, Chase is in his element. There haven’t been many supporting roles throughout his career, but between this and his hilarious part as a gambling addict doctor in debt to some bad people in Dirty Work, it’s fair to look at Chase as thriving in side roles as much as he did front and center.

Stream Hot Tub Time Machine on MGM+.

6) Funny Farm

Chase’s heyday was the ’80s, but the cracks in his career started to show later in his career. For instance, in 1988, when he made two films. One was Caddyshack II, one of the worst sequels of all time, which isn’t helped by the fact that Chase clearly wasn’t loving his time back as Ty Webb.

The other was Funny Farm, one of the most underappreciated movies on his filmography. Chase has never been better than as characters who are trying their best only to have their lives fall apart at every turn. In other words, he was never better than he was as Clark Griswold…or as Funny Farm‘s Andy Farmer.

Stream Funny Farm for free on Kanopy.

5) Foul Play

Outside Beverly D’Angelo, there was never a better scene partner for Chase than Goldie Hawn. She was even his first guest on the short-lived The Chevy Chase Show.

And, while Seems Like Old Times is a pleasant enough little comedy it’s their first collaboration, the neo-noir Hitchcockian comedy thriller Foul Play, that stands as the best of their work together. It’s fun, it’s fast-paced, it’s cute, and it was the first real star vehicle for Chase. He didn’t disappoint.

4) Caddyshack

Caddyshack is not a movie with a particularly firm structure. It’s more of a series of comedic vignettes that all circle around slobs ruining the lives of snobs, who are equally unpleasant in their own way, if not more so.

Chevy Chase’s Ty Webb exists between the two categories. He has more money than anybody could know what to do with, but he doesn’t particularly care about it. He doesn’t play golf to gamble on winners or losers. In fact, he thinks anyone who does is pretty much a loser. He plays to have fun and not care about the world around him. It’s a role that allows him to give as many damns as his character does, aka none, which is perfect. It’s also just interesting to see Chase and Bill Murray share a scene here without going at each other’s throats the way they notoriously did behind the scenes at SNL when the former came back to host.

3) National Lampoon’s Vacation

National Lampoon’s Vacation does a great job of capturing that nuclear family vibe. It also does an equally great job at showing just how difficult it can be to make every member of that family happy. And at the center of that is Chase, who sells Clark Griswold’s eagerness to please just as well as he sells the character’s unhinged anger when that proves to be impossible.

The jokes aren’t as plentiful as in Christmas Vacation, and for some that’s seen as a plus. And, don’t get us wrong, the original Vacation is still plenty funny. In fact, the argument that its laughs are better earned than in Christmas is a sound one. For instance, we had to grow to understand Clark’s frustration with Aunt Edna to laugh along with the sight of them wrapping up her body and tying it to the roof of their Wagon Queen Family Truckster. We had to watch all of this disastrous trip to understand (and, again, laugh along with) Clark punching Marty Moose in the face and holding a security officer hostage with a water gun. But the biggest accomplishment under Vacation‘s belt, the decision that makes it a classic, is the hiring of Chase and D’Angelo, who bounce off of one another sublimely.

2) Fletch

Fletch was basically the Chevy Chase show. Not as in his awful early ’90s talk show, but rather in the notion that if there’s a scene in the movie, it has Chase in it. And, as the title character of Gregory Mcdonald’s mystery novels, he couldn’t be any better. Just as we believe Batman can be both a superhero and a detective, we believe Chase’s Irwin Fletch can be a capable, curious investigative reporter and a gigantic smartass.

Most of Chase’s best lines are in this movie, always delivered less like lines and more like something he’d actually say, especially the amazing “Don’t talk to me like that, assface. I don’t work for you yet.” They feel simultaneously organic to the character and the performer behind the character. But Fletch also ranks this high because the mystery at its core is compelling. We feel the stakes for Fletch and, while he’s a smart-aleck, we’re also shown early on that he has a good heart for those who are marginalized or struggling with addiction. It’s only those who take advantage of people like that who he finds himself being a jerk to. This was Chase’s hero role, and he nailed it. That said, you can skip Fletch Lives. Chase delivers there just as much as he did in our next and final list entry (released the same year as Lives), but the plot is thoroughly uninvolving.

1) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Again, some people prefer the original Vacation, and that’s perfectly understandable. But there’s little doubt that Christmas Vacation is the most frequently watched movie he ever made, and there’s a strong argument to be made that this was his best work as Griswold. Him punching Marty Moose was funny, but him screaming a full rant capped off with “Hallelujah! Holy sh*t! Where’s the Tylenol?” That’s gold.

Christmas Vacation throws a lot of jokes at the audience, and it’s pretty much batting a thousand. And in that lies the true reason Christmas Vacation is the best. Many of the jokes depended on perfect casting for the family members, and between William Hickey, Doris Roberts, and Mae Questel, it has that in spades. This is one quotable, consistently hilarious film, but it also comes equipped with a lovely nostalgia that has helped it become the perennial favorite it has in so many homes. It says a lot that many people who have never celebrated a Christmas in their life still love this movie. If you have a big family, you’ll understand it. If you’ve ever missed a special moment from your past, you’ll understand it. Same goes if you’ve ever seen a beautiful cashier and gotten tongue tied.

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