National Lampoon's European Vacation
Published November 24, 2022
Film info
- Title National Lampoon's European Vacation
- Director Amy Heckerling
- Year 1985
- Run time 1hr 35m
- Genres Comedy, Adventure, Romance
- Tagline For over two thousand years, Europe has survived many great disasters. Now for the real test. Chevy Chase & his family are coming from America!
Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo retun as Clark and Ellen, winners of a European tour on which their teenagers Rusty and Audrey join them. Deluxe accomodations... aren't. Clark tries left-sided English driving, leaving Stonehenge unhinged. In Bavaria, a slap-dancing polka turns into a slaphappy free-for-all. It's holiday road havoc for the Griswolds - and your high road to hilarity!
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:53 | The opening credits on both these films have been great. |
| 3:01 | A ten year’s supply of car polish is surely just one bottle. |
| 6:02 | Love a bonus quiz in a film! |
| 12:32 | “We’re not normal people, we’re the Griswolds.” |
| 20:55 | “We’ve only got four channels and no MTV.” Yep! |
| 28:12 | They can’t have lost their way back to the hotel, they’ve only gone about 100 feet and crashed into three people. |
| 33:46 | Love that he’s consistently wearing Walley World t-shirts. |
| 44:04 | Nothing like being at the top of the Eiffel Tower to make you feel things. |
| 50:37 | “It closes in 15 minutes, there are 100,000 works of art to see.” |
| 1:00:17 | Every time they start setting something up, we’re like ‘oh god.’ |
| 1:04:16 | Racing through narrow streets in an unsuitable car is so Top Gear. |
| 1:13:21 | What do they looook like? Shopping is bad for you, I swear. |
| 1:20:37 | Literally ticking things off the guide book is my kind of holiday. |
| 1:20:48 | Did people take selfies in the 80s? |
| 1:25:16 | Wasn’t expecting a car chase, I’ll be honest. |
Thoughts
Well, this was okay, still fun, but nowhere near as good as the first one. There were some amusing moments but a lot of the chaos seemed a lot more predictable and signposted which took the edge off a bit. And I feel like some of the stories didn’t quite make sense - I’m still not clear on what the thieves plan actually was with the whole kidnapping thing - and how come so many girls found Rusty attractive?
Also the ending was infuriating. I’m assuming there was a lack of ideas for the ending so, haha, wouldn’t it be hilarious if they crashed into the Statue of Liberty. But why were they that low over New York anyway if they were flying to Chicago? And the visual effects on that were really, very poor.
So it loses a point for not quite being as good, and I’m docking a whole point for that dodgy ending too. But certainly very watchable until then. Eric Idle was great.
Rating: 3 / 5