Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure

I am a fan of a few of the Vacation films, but when a movie franchise goes from the big screen to the TV screen, you know it's out of steam. Made for TV National Lampoon films do not do well on TV. This movie is another reason.

I think a lot of us were excited when this was coming out, but we also had to face the reality...it's a TV movie. Randy Quaid is fine as Cousin Eddie, but is better in a supporting role than the lead. Dana Barron sets history as the first actor to reprise her role as one of the Griswold kids. She is just as pretty, but it doesn't help a thin script.

Why was this movie even made? It was probably because NBC recently picked up another few years of presenting X-mas Vacation. There is nothing wrong with the acting. It's all in the script. It's just not that funny. People need to think before they write stuff like this. It is one Christmas movie I do not recommend.

I was wondering why I had never heard of this movie and after watching it, I know why. It's not very good. Bringing back the original Audrey was cool, but they had her act like the second Audrey. They brought back Eric Idle to try to make up for the lack of comedy but he wasn't in enough scenes. Using a green screen instead of actually having them be on a boat in the ocean was just sad. If you liked the original movies you will want to see this once, then forget about it.

This movie was a disaster. Why do movie producers insist on tarnishing the name of something that was truly great? They did not HAVE to use the "vacation" name to make a story out of this piece of crap, but that is the ONLY way anyone would have EVER watched I suppose. First off, what is Vacation without Chevy Chase? He WAS the movie. The original vacation was hilarious and I still laugh when I see it. The second was not as good, but still pretty decent. The Christmas one,....hmmmm, not crazy about, but not horrid. This one basically found the long lost Audrey and put her together with her trailer trash cousins, which if you had seen the first movie know would NEVER happen. So it was her, cousin eddie, and his wife and the grandfather, played by Ed Asner. All these characters were morally depraved, and just disgusting all together. The story was rediculous and not the least bit funny, but really sad.

They did the same thing to such greats as "Jaws", "Crocodile Dundee", "Superman" and so many others. They milked these stories for all they were worth. They took the original piece of work and dragged it through the mud!!!! Why? So Sad!

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2 (2003)

1/2 (out of 4)

Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) gets bitten by a monkey so to avoid a lawsuit the company sends him and his family on a vacation to a tropical island. Man, oh man, what a complete and utter disaster this thing here turned out to be. It's somewhat shocking because it seems writer Matty Simmons, a vet of this series, was really trying to delivers the goods to fans. I mean, we've got Cousin Eddie returning to the series. We've got Dana Barron from the first VACATION film coming back as Audrey Griswold. We've also got Eric Idol coming back as his character from the second film in the series. Throughout the movie there are other jokes aiming back at the previous films in the series as well as other National Lampoon movies including a cameo from Stephen Furst of ANIMAL HOUSE fame. They went that far to come up with something for the fans but they should have spent more time on the screenplay because it's just horrid. Not for a single frame does this low-budget film feel like it's a part of the series. There just aren't any funny moments and most of the scenes are just so poorly written and handled that you can't help but feel embarrassed. Even worse is that the entire thing is an obvious attempt to just make money, which is a real shame as I'm sure the series had more to offer. The performances are pretty much what you'd expect but Quaid can't capture the fire from his previous entries in the series and he comes across rather bland. Fred Willard doesn't add much but Sung Hi Lee steals the film with her incredible beauty, which makes this thing worth sitting through. I will admit that it was fun seeing Barron again but her character is poorly written. 50's Scream Queen Beverly Garland appears towards the end in the final film of her career. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S Christmas VACATION 2 is a truly terrible movie on pretty much all levels so people really shouldn't expect anything like the original series.

Why oh why did they have to try and make a sequel to one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time. The movie is a train wreck on every level and should have never been made. Randy Quaid's portrayal of cousin Eddie is an over the top caricature of his previous outings as cousin Eddie. Also, the Eddie character is not interesting enough to carry an entire movie. Even "eye candy" Sung Hi Lee could not redeem this hunk of holiday crap. Please do not waste your time on this move, just watch the original again.