This comedy from 1985 was the sequel to National Lampoon's Vacation. It is also commonly just called European Vacation. It was directed by Amy Heckerling. It was written by John Hughes and Robert Klane. The cast includes Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, and more.

This time the Griswolds are going to Europe. They won the vacation on the game show "Pig in a Poke" and it will take them through Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, and other parts of Europe. It wouldn't be a Griswold family vacation without out some troubles though. Clark (Chevy Chase) has a hard time learning to drive in Europe and after some accidents finally they get to see Big Ben and Parliament, a lot. Audrey (Dana Hill) has to call her disinterested boyfriend every five minutes. Rusty (Jason Lively) goes a little girl crazy and is hitting on girls everywhere they go. Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) manages to keep the family together, but not with out some problems of her own. Along the way they have a video camera stolen which contains a home movie of Clark and Ellen. They see Stonehenge, the Eiffel Tower, a German festival, and unknowingly get in a bit of trouble in Rome.

The fact the kids are changed (same names, different actors, different ages) isn't a problem. Each movie must be viewed slightly independent from the others. IMHO it gives the writers some freedom to write better jokes throughout the series. This movie does have some memorable lines and moments, but as a whole is not really great. It is easily the weakest of the Vacation series.

Preceded by: National Lampoon's Vacation
Followed by: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation

The DVD of the film released in 2002 features a commentary from Clark Griswold himself, Chevy Chase. What are some of the chunks of knowledge that he dispenses? Listen to his audio track and hear memorable comments such as...

  • "I still have that shirt."
  • "The food at that place was really good."
  • "I hurt my back doing that stunt."
  • "I still have that jacket."
  • "The kids changed in every movie. We didn't care."
  • "I didn't understand this scene back then, but I get it now."
  • "That's really the mountain where they filmed The Sound of Music."
  • "That was my camcorder at the time. Wow, that was huge!"
  • "I still have those pants... I think I stole all the clothes from this movie."
And many more! Chevy's a talented comedian, but a commentator he is not, unfortunately.

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