There's some funny stuff here while traveling to Europe with the Griswalds. Full of misadventures, slapstick humor, action, and a little raunchy fun. It's wild comedy from the family's European tour from start to finish. A fast-paced plot with some wild acting. Grade B

Despite the dumbing-down of nearly every aspect of the original movie, "European Vacation" looks and feels today like the stuff of mid-'80s cable. You know the kind; that movie you bump into on HBO on a Sunday afternoon, and stick with. That's not a feeling you get everyday, especially with a 30 year-old movie you've just recently seen for the first time.As a sequel, it's not a patch on the original; the kids are inconsistent, the family's unbelievably hapless and the jokes don't work. But it's a product of the Reagan '80s and there's some charm in that respect. It's good for a few chuckles, but for my money, an angry Dana Hill steals the show.5/10

National Lampoons European Vacation is a film that although never lives up it's very good starting film, still manages a few chuckles and brings us back a family we love to laugh at. It has a lot of new places and doesn't just stick around from the first film, travelling across Europe the Griswold family get up to more crazy hijinks and basically ruin everything for anyone that comes there way. I thought it was safely a kind of OK movie, and here Is why.The story is as crazy as the first and never really stops trying the same thing, you could say this is what makes this not the best comedy, but the old jokes still sure do work. It is fast paced and they move around very quickly from place to place, it doesn't affect it but it can be hard to establish characters they come across who just seem like they are all cameos. It has it's moments of jokes, not too many but no jokes annoy so it doesn't quite ever get to be a bad movie.Chevy Chase is good in the movie, his funny acting skill is slightly drowned out by some poor writing and direction but he still does a good job to be the head of the family. I found the rest of the family poor and the two new children actors who took over from the first films originals just aren't funny, it lacks the one liners the first two children brought to us. I liked the cameos we do see they are funny, don't work so well as I previously said but still add to the humour.I'm sad to say Amy Heckerling doesn't do to good of a job here, I think one reason people disliked this movie at the time was because of her direction, she doesn't do enough to bring the laughs out of the scenes. John Hughes has massive talent in comedy writing and even stronger when writing cross country trip comedies, and he doesn't do BAD here, just not great either, the words are the funniest part of this movie and chuckles can be had but I expected much better from such a legend of comedy writing.My main criticism as can be seen is the lack of jokes, they are there yes but don't often come out and when they do you could already be hating the film. Starts very slow and although it does get into a nice rhythm, Chase can't do enough to make it good enough. I also disliked the timing, bit too short or maybe the scenes are too short, much more could have been done in timing the film.I think those who liked the first film will enjoy this, nowhere near as much but you still get some genuine laughs and if you heard it is bad, then you may feel guilty because you will laugh. It has a lot of slapstick type jokes, so for those who dislike that kind of thing stay away for good. This film seems almost as if the family don't bond at all so it could be said if you like dysfunctional comedies.Overall it is a Safely OK-ish Movie, nowhere near being Good let alone OK but still more than just your average comedy, well in my opinion. I think some may hate this, some may love it, it depends on whether you think you have such a thing as class when it comes to movie. Don't think into this film too much and it could have you in stitches, if you do, you may despise it.

Stick with the Christmas one and you'll be all right. This one was atrocious. Unimaginative, boring, repetitive, predictable. Chase is in good form as always, but there's little he can do with such a dumb script. Same for the wife. The son is just passable and the girl who plays the daughter... oh my dear lord.. I have never seen such an off- putting creature in my life. She looks like a pig, especially when seen from the side.The only thing I liked was the film's comparison of Americans with swine. (In the beginning of the film, the Griswold's are encouraged by a TV audience to "be a pig.") I suppose that's why they casted that disgusting thing as the daughter, who is supposed to be playing a teenager but looks like she's nearly forty. They also did a good job of showing the utter ignorance and degeneration of American parents, even back in '85: in a beginning scene, the piglet daughter's boyfriend is over and they're down each other's throats in front of the parents. What kind of a emasculated little moron of a "father" allows his teenage piglet this behaviour?An American one, I guess.