14 years ago , national lampoon introduced us to a new family - the griswolds . in 1983 , the griswolds embarked on a cross-country journey with the destination of wally world , a world-renowned theme park in california . we laughed our heads off as we shared the wild and crazy mishaps the family endured . two years later , we watched again as they went to europe , and four years after that , we shared christmas with them . now , eight more years have passed , and <NEG> the laughs have done more than die . they've been cremated </NEG> . vegas vacation brings back chevy chase as clark griswold , the good intentioned but ill-fated father of two . the premise is basically the same . clark has a wonderful idea to take his family on a bonding vacation , this time to las vegas . his wife ellen ( beverly d'angelo ) and teenage kids rusty and audrey ( always played by different actors - this time around , by ethan embry and marisol nichols , respectively ) join him and they soon find themselves in sin city where casinos will make the backdrop for ninety minutes of slapstick . of course a " vacation " movie wouldn't be complete without good ole eddie ( reprised by randy quaid ) , the misfit cousin , showing up at all the wrong times . there isn't too much of a plot here when it comes right down to it . it's really just a skit movie . there are a couple of ways to define a skit movie , which is not a real term as far as i know . the first would be a movie that basically has one running gag for two hours , therefore coming off like a two hour skit . the second would be a movie that seems comprised of about twenty shorter skits , each lasting about five minutes . vegas vacation comes off like the first . a good example of the latter would be last year's black sheep . <NEG> the problem with this format is that it becomes old fast , and it doesn't really fit into a movie mold </NEG> . in these cases , a " plot " , which is generally very thin , is used either as a shameless filler between scenes or to simply add convenience to the gags ( i . e . have a good vegas joke , make a vegas movie ) . such is the case with this movie's mini-plots . clark gets gambling fever and begins spending all of the griswold's money , ellen is on the verge of an affair with wayne newton ( ! ) , rusty has a fake id and is using it to his gambling advantage , and audrey is desperate for fun and winds up joining her cousin vickie ( shae d'lyn ) as an exotic dancer . the simple fact is : <NEG> this movie isn't funny </NEG> . at first , i did find myself chuckling heartily at a couple of little jokes , but when the movie got rolling , my interest suddenly stopped . chase plays clark griswold really well . he made the character and he is the character . d'angelo , to be quite honest , never was too impressive as ellen , and this movie doesn't show any signs of redemption . as for the two new griswold kids , <NEG> the word " blah " comes to mind </NEG> . the " vacation " series seems out to prove that anybody can play these two characters , the simple reason being that there is nothing to them . they're so generic , you'll expect the credits to read " girl #1 as audrey griswold " . vegas vacation differs from the first three in the series by more than just laugh factor . yes , it's true that vegas vacation <NEG> isn't even close to being close to being as funny as the others </NEG> , which were actually pretty fun in their own doofy ways , but there are a couple of other things that <NEG> set this one negatively apart </NEG> . first off , why did they leave off the national lampoon's heading on the title ? i couldn't find any reasons why , but maybe the fact is even national lampoon didn't want to be associated with such <NEG> a lame film </NEG> . that's saying a lot , especially when you look at what else the company has proudly presented : loaded weapon 1 , pcu , etc . if they expected this to be another hit , you would assume they'd be proud to tack on the notorious header , but for reasons only we can guess at , <NEG> like the movie sucking </NEG> , they didn't . there is another difference here that makes an obvious impact . the first three films in the " vacation " series were written by john hughes , a talented writer who is behind several popular films of the 80's including mr . mom , sixteen candles , the breakfast club , weird science , pretty in pink , ferris bueller's day off , planes , trains , and automobiles , and uncle buck . wowzers ! what a r ? sum ? ! looking at the names , you'd think this guy wrote everything that now stands as a movie icon for the 1980's . well that's not all . this guy also brought us 90's hits including the home alone series , the remake of 101 dalmatians , dennis the menace , and the current flubber . vegas vacation , however , didn't have john hughes behind it , and the loss is very obvious . this time around , the script is in the hands of elisa bell , whose only credits thus far include four made-for-tv movies . vegas vacation plays very much like one , and it would actually work much better as a made-for-tv sequel . if this sounds like a wild idea , it's not . revenge of the nerds third and fourth installments were both television movies , and they seemed like it . vegas vacation would fit in well on the fox network as a 2 : 00 a . m . sunday morning movie , but as a silver screen major motion picture , <NEG> it's quite out of place </NEG> . stephen kessler's jejune direction doesn't help things either . he only makes the film even more tv-movie-ish . each consecutive " vacation " movie <NEG> has suffered a drop in directing power </NEG> . we started the series off with harold ramis , who also directed caddyshack and groundhog day as well as co-writing ghostbusters . not too bad . then we had national lampoon's european vacation being directed by amy heckerling , who would go on to direct the hits look who's talking and clueless , as well as having already directed the infamous fast times at ridgemont high . lastly we had national lampoon's christmas vacation , directed by jeremiah s . chechik , who went on to direct the charming benny & joon . kessler , so far , has one title under his belt , the short film birch street gym , which received an oscar nomination in 1992 . granted that this was his first attempt at a feature length film , we can allow for some amateurish quality , but instead <NEG> we get a movie straight from the text book - boring , bland , and deeply unoriginal </NEG> . if you loved the " vacation " movies , and i know * some * of us did , <NEG> there still isn't anything here worth seeing </NEG> . if you loved them , don't ruin your good impressions of the series by indulging in <NEG> this tragic example of cinema ala carte </NEG> . if you never did like the series , why the need to confirm why ?
