2. Clark Griswold National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
If Caddyshack is the film that put Chevy Chase on the map, then it's National Lampoon's Vacation that made him a household name. The European and Christmas follow-ups might have earned more at the box office, but the original again with Harold Ramis directing was rarely bettered in terms of LPM (that's laughs per minute) (and there is a lot of them). There's not shortage of talent on or off the screen, with Ramis behind the character working from a John Hughes script and Chase sharing the screen with Beverely D'Angelo, John Candy and Eugene Levy, but nobody manages to surpass the barely-suppressed suburban rage of Chase's Clark Griswold. Griswold is a larger-than-life character that Chase nevertheless imbues with some sympathetically human qualities. He just wants his family to have a nice holiday, despite the whole universe seemingly conspiring against him. A semi-reboot is out this year, with Ed Helms given the unenviable task of filling the Griswold shoes.