National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)
National Lampoon’s Vacation and its 1989 sequel Christmas Vacation are comedy classics; the second film in the series, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, not so much. All the basic elements that made the first film so funny are still there, but European Vacation is comparatively lacking in the execution. While passable entertainment on the strength of attractive European locations, some decent laughs, and the charm of Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo, the film’s jokes are stale and predictable. Much of the script relies on characters acting like idiots, to an extent that it makes the comedy less funny and relatable than its predecessor.
Where the first Vacation saw the Griswold family travelling across America to visit the Disneyland-like Walley World, European Vacation, directed by Amy Heckerling from a script by Robert Klane, finds the clan on an all-expenses paid trip through Europe after winning a game show called Pig in a Poke. Though Chase and D’Angelo return as parents Clark and Ellen Griswold, their children Audrey and Rusty are played this time around by Dana Hill and Jason Lively — the first case of a running joke in the Vacation series, wherein the Griswold siblings are played by different actors in each film. Unfortunately, as written here, Audrey and Rusty are more annoying than they’ve ever been. Both whine about being forced into the horrific experience of going on an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe. Audrey has two characteristics: her love of food and missing her boyfriend Jack (William Zakba), despite being fully aware he is cheating on her with her best friend Debbie. Rusty has one: wanting to get laid.
European Vacation is a good example of your standard tasteless ’80s comedy. Here that mostly translates to lazy jokes about Audrey overeating — a dream sequence in a restaurant is more than a little reminiscent of an infamous (and better) scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life — gratuitous boob shots, stereotypes of foreigners (e.g. rude Frenchmen), casual sexism, and a stream of minor characters defined largely by their cartoonish horniness.
The latter in particular often involves characters acting stupid, such as when Ellen puts a washcloth over her eyes while bathing in her hotel’s shared bathroom and talks about how frisky she’s feeling, thinking Clark is still in the room. Of course, Clark is no longer there and it’s actually a stranger (Robbie Coltrane) who is listening and who prepares to get in the bath with her. Meanwhile, Clark returns to what he thinks is his room and gets in bed with someone he thinks is his wife. No prizes for guessing how that scene turns out.
Occasionally the film’s tastelessness can lead to amusing scenes, such as the opening when Pig in a Poke host Kent Winkdale (John Astin) introduces the Griswold family and makes out with Ellen and Audrey. In fact, Family Feud host Richard Dawson really did kiss female guests on the lips on a regular basis, which makes this effective satire. More often such moments are less effective, as when Clark shows Ellen some “French culture” on their anniversary by taking her to a strip club. If it produces a minor chuckle, the scene feels more like an excuse to show topless women than anything else. At the club, Clark and Ellen find 15-year-old Rusty drunk and hanging out with a prostitute, which doesn’t lead to an actual punchline beyond that. We’re expected to find the mere situation funny.
Missed opportunities are rampant in European Vacation. The film takes the Griswold family to four main locales — London, Paris, “somewhere in Germany”, and Rome — but provides few memorable comic set pieces. Those we see are incredibly predictable, such as when the family visits Stonehenge and Clark accidentally knocks into one of the stones with his car, causing the entire structure to fall down. As soon as I saw Clark give a Frenchman his giant ’80s camcorder to take a photo of the family, I knew it was going to end with the Frenchman running away and stealing the camcorder (incidentally, how does one take a photo with a 1980s video camera?). In Germany to visit Clark’s distant relatives, the Griswolds end up at the wrong house. All that happens is the Griswolds have a big meal with the German couple that lives there, despite the couple not speaking English, then leave. Is that really the best the writers could do?
Representative of the film’s laziness is the fact that it misspells the name “Griswold”, established in the first film, as “Griswald”. Representative of the movie’s failure to fulfill its potential is its casting of Eric Idle as a bike rider that the Griswolds encounter on their trip. Idle is a bona fide comedy legend, due to his association with Monty Python, yet there are no memorable jokes involving his character. Again, the situation is the joke: they hit him with their car and then keep running into him. Oh, well, I suppose Clark later accidentally causes the bike rider’s leg, which is in a cast, to get briefly jammed in a revolving door. It sounds funnier than it is.
The film’s ratio of hits and misses is encapsulated in that early dream sequence, when each member of the Griswold family fantasizes about their trip to Europe. Audrey’s dream we’ve already mentioned. Rusty’s involves dancing with women in a club to Power Station’s “Some Like It Hot” (good tune, btw). Neither scene is particularly funny. However, Ellen and Clark’s dreams are: in Ellen’s dream, she and Clark meet Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana. In Clark’s, the Griswold family dances in the Alps in traditional European dress to “The Sound of Music”.
Inevitably, the film is dated. Sometimes this works in its favour. As a fan of ’80s music, I enjoyed the Power Station track as well as the tune that plays over the end credits once the family returns home, “Back in America” by Network. The credits play over a montage of images depicting various aspects of American culture, which screams Reagan-era nationalism. In a sense the film has it both ways: mocking the stereotype of the “ignorant American” abroad, while reveling in the flag-waving patriotism that saw a resurgence during the 1980s. Admittedly, the Network song is catchy. The credits follow a scene where the Griswolds are flying into New York and Clark’s clumsiness causes their plane to accidentally hit the Statue of Liberty. For obvious reasons, a scene of a plane flying into major New York City landmarks would be less likely to be played for laughs today.
I’ve spent most of this review complaining about the film. European Vacation isn’t a bad time if you don’t judge it too harshly. If all you’re looking for is a lowbrow ’80s comedy to pass an hour and a half and deliver a few laughs, the film meets that low bar. The MVPs here are Chase and D’Angelo, who are the heart of the National Lampoon’s Vacation series. The affection between their characters feels genuine, and grounds some of the more cartoonish elements. Chase has developed a somewhat negative reputation offscreen, yet Clark Griswold remains his signature role. He is perfect as the somewhat clueless but well-meaning everyman husband and father, who just wants his family to bond together on vacation, and who tries to maintain an unshakable optimism despite all the mishaps they encounter.
That basic relatable premise, which runs through all the National Lampoon’s Vacation movies, is what makes these movies endearing. European Vacation is not a great movie, or even a good one. Among the four films with Chase and D’Angelo, it might be the worst of the series — though I’ll hold off on that judgement until I see Vegas Vacation. Yet the central couple, their onscreen relationship, and the premise of the series retain an inherent appeal. In that regard I would compare the Vacation series to Elvis Presley films, which were not exactly high art, but featured a captivating presence at the centre that made even the weakest entries worth watching. Inferior to Vacation and Christmas Vacation, European Vacation nevertheless has all the elements one would expect from a movie in this series. If you’re a fan, or even if you want a halfway decent time-waster, that might be enough.
Final notes: the theme song, as with the previous Vacation, is Lindsay Buckingham’s “Holiday Road”, which is one of those songs that’s terrible but infuriatingly catchy. I’ve had it stuck in my head since watching the movie (Buckingham, it must be said, smothers his vocals in echo more than any singer I’ve ever heard). Also, Alvin and the Chipmunks did a parody of this film in 1990 on their Chipmunks Go to the Movies series called “Irrational Buffoon’s European Vacation”, which might be a better title than that of the actual film.
4/10
