Powerful

Memorable, crazy movie

Brilliant and touching

Beautiful, moving film.

I genuinely love this movie, and have since childhood, it's laugh out loud slapstick, and highlights every preconceived stereotype people had about Europeans before globalisation, all Brits are posh and idiotic, Italians are all gangsters and of course The French hate everyone that isn't French.So it's far from politically correct, indeed many of the jokes wouldn't be allowed in a new film, but it was the eighties.It's such a feel good film, the music is so upbeat, Chase and D'Angelo are as wonderful as always, but it's the many great cameos I enjoyed most, numerous funny parts from Mel Smith, Maureen Lipman, Ballard Barclay and of course the wonderful Eric Idle.It's bonkers, it's hilarious.

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

The problem with sequels, they mostly disappoint. Not really so with this one. Yes the first was classic, funny, and hard to beat, with a whole lot of reality hidden under Clark's escapades and misadventures. Much the reality that we can relate to was the beauty of that film. What works here, of course not scoring as many laughs as the original, is the change of location, or should say the change of locations, as The Griswalds win a trip to Europe, all by accidentally winning a round on a game show, up against a real genius, and unbeatable family, up until now. Even though this has been dissed, I never had a problem with this one where again, there's a lot of reality here, we can relate too, when going away, one especially, involving running up a phone bill. Here of course, Clark creates chaos and misunderstanding as remember, he's in Europe. They even visit the wrong address of relatives, who of course, are strangers to these wild family on the account of a half veiled address number. Another misunderstanding which resulted in a chase was the German dancing. Oh did I forget, they visited Germany as well. We have different actors replace Rusty and Audrey, as in all the Vacation series, and there are a few cameos from some English greats. I thought the bit with poor bicycle rider Idle was sick though, on the account of the 'wrist squirting blood' moments. The writer or writers here have really honed in on picking out funny happenings and situations, where for me this was a potpouri of laughs from a potpouri of laughs from a potpouri of cities, which made this one work. Even on return, the Griswalds cause the plane to knock the statue of liberty off.

A Sequel to the very enjoyable Vacation, 'European Vacation' turns out to be a good sequel, offering slap-stick humor & non-sense all through. Don't look for logic in here!'European Vacation' Synopsis: The Griswalds win a vacation tour across Europe where the usual havoc ensues.'European Vacation' gets it right, as the humor works. Sure, it makes no sense, but again, slap-stick comedies are not meant to be taken seriously. Screenplay by John Hughes & Robert Klane is funny, offering aplenty of ridiculously moments in the goings-on. Amy Heckerling's Direction is ordinary. The Cinematography captures the exotic locales of Europe perfectly. Performance-Wise: Chevy Chase leads the film with a winning performance. He's in complete form. Beverly D'Angelo is spunky. Dana Hill & Jason Lively are okay. John Astin is passable. On the whole, 'European Vacation' does work.