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| Warner Bros. | Release Date: July 26, 1985 |
Starring:
Beverly D'Angelo, Chevy Chase, Cynthia Szigeti, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, John Astin, Kevi Kendall, Malcolm Danare, Paul Bartel, Sheila Kennedy
Summary:
The Griswolds win a vacation tour across Europe where the usual havoc ensues.
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National Lampoon's European Vacation is directed by Amy Heckerling, whose career began with the spunky if not inventive Fast Times at Ridgemont High and continued with the inventive if not spunky Johnny Dangerously; this time, she's responsible for a picture that's neither inventive nor spunky. [29 July 1985]
Chase and D'Angelo are clever and naturally funny, and they're well-matched. And yet the movie is dumb, so dumb it must have taken some work to make it that way. Perhaps next the Griswalds should make a forced march through a Hollywood executive's brain. [27 July 1985, p.B3]
Director Amy Heckerling cripples half her jokes by telegraphing the punch lines: a sight gag at the top of the Eiffel Tower involving a tossed hat and a little dog would be a lot funnier if we hadn't seen it coming. Some of the jokes seem 25 years out of date: one hardly has to go all the way to France these days, much less cross a state line, to encounter a racy topless bar. [12 Aug 1985, p.71]
Heckerling directs this mess with no sense of pace and less sense of where to put the camera. There are pixilated, MTV-style sequences that simply slow up the story, car chases and car crashes, and, of course, aerobicizers boinging out of their leotards. The best thing in the movie is the catchy theme from the last Vacation, which, unfortunately, hasn't the slightest thing to do with Europe.
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Nov 23, 2021
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Jan 12, 2021
The same movie as the original just on a different continent.
If you love the first movie (which I do) you'll like this.
If you love the first movie (which I do) you'll like this.
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