Vegas Vacation

The fourth installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series, 'Vegas Vacation' is silly, but so funny too! Its pure slapstick humor, that is enjoyable for anyone who's familiar with the Vacation movies & the crazy Griswold family.

'Vegas Vacation' Synopsis: In the fourth outing for the vacation franchise, the Griswolds have to survive Vegas fever when they go to Las Vegas for a fun family vacation.

'Vegas Vacation' doesn't get every joke or gag right, but at most parts, you laugh at the silliness. Its purely an entertaining comedy, that has been made only to make you laugh. And to a large extend, the makers have succeeded!

Elisa Bell's Screenplay is spirited, although not everything works, particularly that one segment featuring a lecherous Vegas singing star who goes head over heels for Mrs Griswold. Stephen Kessler's Direction is pretty decent. Cinematography & Editing are alright.

Performance-Wise: Chevy Chase is in terrific form. He nails the part of the wacky leader of a dysfunctional family & brings the house down on numerous occasions. Beverly D'Angelo has also done very well. Randy Quaid is first-rate. Marisol Nichols is passable. Ethan Embry doesn't really impress. Wayne Newton is wasted.

On the whole, 'Vegas Vacation' has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. So for that alone, I'd suggest you check this one out.

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.

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).

Well, Clark Griswold has so far botched a road trip, a European vacation and (most memorably) a Christmas vacation; so why does he continue to make his family go through hell on his endless quest for a fun vacation? That's easy; it's pretty enjoyable for us to watch :)

"Vegas Vacation" sits comfortably as the third most enjoyable film in the series; surpassing "European Vacation" but not as enjoyable as "Vacation" or "Christmas Vacation". It's pretty far reaching at times but there are solid moments here; such as Clark damn near destroying a damn and getting crazy (as only Clark Griswold can) playing cards and losing everything.

The Wayne Newton gag soon grows tiresome and everything concerning Audrey and Russ pretty much stinks but Randy Quaid delivers once again as obnoxious Cousin Eddie and Chase hasn't lost his touch as the world's most annoying (yet somehow oddly endearing) family dad.

"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 ****