Vegas Vacation

I've read many comments about the Vacation movies. Most people give the original "Vacation" high marks, but trash the others. I think a lot of people just like to be pick on Chevy Chase. "Vacation" is the best, but I liked the sequels and "Vegas Vacation" is my favorite of them. My kids just love to watch "Vegas Vacation". You can't pop in the DVD expecting to watch a movie that will be thought provoking or life altering. It was made to make people laugh and it accomplishes that very well. Chevy Chase and cast are very funny in this movie. The Wayne Newton bit was great. I love going to Vegas, and I love this movie. When my wife and I fly to Vegas, we always kid about going to the bathroom to join "the club" like Clark and Ellen. Numerous other things remind us of the movie when we are in Vegas, and it has made those trips even more enjoyable. Just wish Chevy would do another "Vacation" movie.

"Vegas Vacation" makes no pretenses to be a good, hearty, intelligent piece of cinema: it features many critical, inexcusable flaws, such as: trafficking in mindless frivolity, some occasionally cheesy dialogue, and even wavers constantly from scene to scene without any means of resolution or connection. Yet, if you can ignore its many irksome qualities, the latest outing with the Griswalds is simply an outrageous, hilarious, and pleasurable romp of a movie. If you laugh at something senseless and absurd, such as Cousing Eddie babbling on about his worthless, pathetic existence, or Clark Griswald finding himself at the edge of the Hoover Dam, or even a busload of tourists crashing into the estate of "Mr. Las Vegas", Wayne Newton, so what? Where logic and reasoning are scarce behind the odds of the scenarios the Griswalds encounter, laughs are aplenty to make this one gleeful, jovial outing full of some really effective comedy. The idea of the dysfunctional Griswalds venturing to Vegas for yet another "family vacation" and finding themselves experiencing the whims of the city of entertainment in their own individual ways, with Clark being a hapless, compulsive gambler, Ellen having somewhat of an affair with Wayne Newton, Rusty hitting it rich at the casinos and masquerading as a "playboy", and Audrey aspiring to be an exotic dancer, how hilarious can it get? Couple this with the outrageous imbecilic likes of Cousin Eddie continuing to plague Clark's existence, and "Vegas Vacation" succeeds in delivering a royal flush of laughs. If it's silly and inane, if scenarios are too illogical for words, and if not everything really comes together by the end, at least you have plenty of funny material to laugh away at, and that makes for a jolly good outing, when you find yourself laughing consistently throughout the film, which warrants a solid recommendation for "Vegas Vacation". Hilarious! *** out of ****

What happens in Vegas ... well does not quite stay there. Multiple puns intended. If you are going on a vacation with the Griswolds, anything can happen. Like Randy Quaid popping in for some unknown reason - apart from the script and probably the audience demanding it. The beloved and hated cousin is back again.

And this time it seems like father Griswold does everything he can to ruin or rather bankrupt the whole familly. Will he succeed? A fair question one might have. The whole thing is quite insane and while you do not have to have seen any other vacation movie you can see that none of the member changes ... well physically/casting wise the son and daughter combo do change. You get new ones playing them in every movie. But mindset wise ... well they stay the same - same goes for Mom and Dad - but they are being played by the same people.

If you did like the other movies, you will have fun with this too - some interesting cameos included (not sure why currently the pics used for Sigfried and Roy are ... anything but good looking ... anyway).

I saw this movie when it was first released in the theatres, and thought it was one of the worst films ever made. Since then, whenever this movie comes on TV, I cannot turn it off. What was once like watching a car wreck has become an enjoyable viewing experience that is a very funny experience. Still can't figure out how the daughter grew up Latina but Marisol Nichols is so cute, who cares? Sinatra imitator very funny, as is the seemingly five minutes of silence they hold on the Quaid/Newton bit. Also funny, the server in the buffet "oh you're right, this is chicken WANT SOME!" and Chevy Chase butt-ugly costume.

Mayhem ensues when the Griswolds go to Las Vegas in this fourth film in the 'Vacation' franchise. Chevy Chase is solid as always and Wallace Shawn has a fun extended cameo this time round as a condescending croupier, but with minimal road trip elements here, the dynamic is not quite as juicy as the first or even second film. The plot basically consists of each member of the Griswold clan having their own individual Vegas experiences, and while there is quite a bit of oddball humour in how Rusty makes it as a gambling king, there is not a lot of interest in Audrey becoming a Vegas dancer, Ellen being seduced by Wayne Netwon or Clark's gambling debt woes (Shawn's role in the matter aside). The recasting of the kids (yet again) also works against the film; while Marisol Nichols and Ethan Embry are both older than the characters they are playing, they don't look it, while Chase - with grey hair now - looks older than ever. Randy Quaid also has far too much screen time for his own good as the abrasive cousin Eddie and it is hard to know what to make of a scene in which Quaid and Chase visit an outskirts casino with "what number am I thinking of" gambling games. The solution to Chase's gambling woes comes a little too easily too. There are, however, enough scattered good moments here to make the film possibly worth a look. The return of the blonde in a convertible (from the first film) is a nice touch, some dam wordplay surprisingly works well, a sun-roof incident is quite funny and what a way the film depicts to obtain a fake ID!