VEGAS VACATION (PG)
Directed by Stephen Kessler Running Time: 95 minutes Originally Released: February 14, 1997
Reviewed by E. Benjamin Kelsey
* ˝ (out of four)
14 years ago, National Lampoon introduced us to a new family - The Griswolds. In 1983, the Griswolds embarked on a cross-country journey with the destination of Wally World, a world-renowned theme park in California. We laughed our heads off as we shared the wild and crazy mishaps the family endured. Two years later, we watched again as they went to Europe, and four years after that, we shared Christmas with them. Now, eight more years have passed, and the laughs have done more than die. They've been cremated.
VEGAS VACATION brings back Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, the good intentioned but ill-fated father of two. The premise is basically the same. Clark has a wonderful idea to take his family on a bonding vacation, this time to Las Vegas. His wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and teenage kids Rusty and Audrey (always played by different actors - this time around, by Ethan Embry and Marisol Nichols, respectively) join him and they soon find themselves in Sin City where casinos will make the backdrop for ninety minutes of slapstick. Of course a "Vacation" movie wouldn't be complete without good ole Eddie (reprised by Randy Quaid), the misfit cousin, showing up at all the wrong times.
There isn't too much of a plot here when it comes right down to it. It's really just a skit movie. There are a couple of ways to define a skit movie, which is not a real term as far as I know. The first would be a movie that basically has one running gag for two hours, therefore coming off like a two hour skit. The second would be a movie that seems comprised of about twenty shorter skits, each lasting about five minutes. VEGAS VACATION comes off like the first. A good example of the latter would be last year's BLACK SHEEP. The problem with this format is that it becomes old fast, and it doesn't really fit into a movie mold. In these cases, a "plot", which is generally very thin, is used either as a shameless filler between scenes or to simply add convenience to the gags (i.e. Have a good Vegas joke, make a Vegas movie). Such is the case with this movie's mini-plots. Clark gets gambling fever and begins spending all of the Griswold's money, Ellen is on the verge of an affair with Wayne Newton (!), Rusty has a fake ID and is using it to his gambling advantage, and Audrey is desperate for fun and winds up joining her cousin Vickie (Shae D'Lyn) as an exotic dancer.
The simple fact is: this movie isn't funny. At first, I did find myself chuckling heartily at a couple of little jokes, but when the movie got rolling, my interest suddenly stopped. Chase plays Clark Griswold really well. He made the character and he is the character. D'Angelo, to be quite honest, never was too impressive as Ellen, and this movie doesn't show any signs of redemption. As for the two new Griswold kids, the word "blah" comes to mind. The "Vacation" series seems out to prove that anybody can play these two characters, the simple reason being that there is nothing to them. They're so generic, you'll expect the credits to read "Girl #1 as Audrey Griswold".
VEGAS VACATION differs from the first three in the series by more than just laugh factor. Yes, it's true that VEGAS VACATION isn't even close to being close to being as funny as the others, which were actually pretty fun in their own doofy ways, but there are a couple of other things that set this one negatively apart. First off, why did they leave off the National Lampoon's heading on the title? I couldn't find any reasons why, but maybe the fact is even National Lampoon didn't want to be associated with such a lame film. That's saying a lot, especially when you look at what else the company has proudly presented: LOADED WEAPON 1, PCU, etc. If they expected this to be another hit, you would assume they'd be proud to tack on the notorious header, but for reasons only we can guess at, like the movie sucking, they didn't.
There is another difference here that makes an obvious impact. The first three films in the "Vacation" series were written by John Hughes, a talented writer who is behind several popular films of the 80's including MR. MOM, SIXTEEN CANDLES, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, WEIRD SCIENCE, PRETTY IN PINK, FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES, and UNCLE BUCK. Wowzers! What a résumé! Looking at the names, you'd think this guy wrote everything that now stands as a movie icon for the 1980's. Well that's not all. This guy also brought us 90's hits including the HOME ALONE series, the remake of 101 DALMATIANS, DENNIS THE MENACE, and the current FLUBBER. VEGAS VACATION, however, didn't have John Hughes behind it, and the loss is very obvious.
This time around, the script is in the hands of Elisa Bell, whose only credits thus far include four made-for-TV movies. VEGAS VACATION plays very much like one, and it would actually work much better as a made-for-TV sequel. If this sounds like a wild idea, it's not. REVENGE OF THE NERDS third and fourth installments were both television movies, and they seemed like it. VEGAS VACATION would fit in well on the FOX network as a 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning movie, but as a silver screen major motion picture, it's quite out of place.
Stephen Kessler's jejune direction doesn't help things either. He only makes the film even more TV-movie-ish. Each consecutive "Vacation" movie has suffered a drop in directing power. We started the series off with Harold Ramis, who also directed CADDYSHACK and GROUNDHOG DAY as well as co-writing GHOSTBUSTERS. Not too bad. Then we had NATIONAL LAMPOON'S EUROPEAN VACATION being directed by Amy Heckerling, who would go on to direct the hits LOOK WHO'S TALKING and CLUELESS, as well as having already directed the infamous FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. Lastly we had NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION, directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, who went on to direct the charming BENNY & JOON. Kessler, so far, has one title under his belt, the short film BIRCH STREET GYM, which received an Oscar nomination in 1992. Granted that this was his first attempt at a feature length film, we can allow for some amateurish quality, but instead we get a movie straight from the text book - boring, bland, and deeply unoriginal.
If you loved the "Vacation" movies, and I know *some* of us did, there still isn't anything here worth seeing. If you loved them, don't ruin your good impressions of the series by indulging in this tragic example of cinema ala carte. If you never did like the series, why the need to confirm why?
December 26, 1997
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews