Absolutely Fantastic

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2 (2003) 1/2 (out of 4) Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) gets bitten by a monkey so to avoid a lawsuit the company sends him and his family on a vacation to a tropical island. Man, oh man, what a complete and utter disaster this thing here turned out to be. It's somewhat shocking because it seems writer Matty Simmons, a vet of this series, was really trying to delivers the goods to fans. I mean, we've got Cousin Eddie returning to the series. We've got Dana Barron from the first VACATION film coming back as Audrey Griswold. We've also got Eric Idol coming back as his character from the second film in the series. Throughout the movie there are other jokes aiming back at the previous films in the series as well as other National Lampoon movies including a cameo from Stephen Furst of ANIMAL HOUSE fame. They went that far to come up with something for the fans but they should have spent more time on the screenplay because it's just horrid. Not for a single frame does this low-budget film feel like it's a part of the series. There just aren't any funny moments and most of the scenes are just so poorly written and handled that you can't help but feel embarrassed. Even worse is that the entire thing is an obvious attempt to just make money, which is a real shame as I'm sure the series had more to offer. The performances are pretty much what you'd expect but Quaid can't capture the fire from his previous entries in the series and he comes across rather bland. Fred Willard doesn't add much but Sung Hi Lee steals the film with her incredible beauty, which makes this thing worth sitting through. I will admit that it was fun seeing Barron again but her character is poorly written. 50's Scream Queen Beverly Garland appears towards the end in the final film of her career. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S Christmas VACATION 2 is a truly terrible movie on pretty much all levels so people really shouldn't expect anything like the original series.

First of all, I think it's a bad idea to make a sequel of a sequel. (Seems redundant.) Second, the premise is very weak. The character of Cousin Eddie was very memorable in both Vacation and Christmas Vacation, but he's only good as a supporting character, not as a lead. This is just another prime example of Hollywood trying to milk something that has already run its course. (I felt that the original Christmas Vacation was the swan song to the Trilogy. (Yes, I did say Trilogy!) If they were serious about making this movie, how about hiring writers who actually put time and effort into a good script? it seemed that the writers just threw something together, submitted it, and the movie got made. No wonder this movie was made for TV and released direct to video, instead of being theatrically released. I think Randy Quaid should have passed on this one.

If you always wanted to know exactly how Clark Griswold thought and felt about his cousin Eddie, and I mean REALLY understand Clark's animosity towards Cousin Eddie to a level beyond what was established in the Vacation movies, just watch this made-for-TV movie."Dumb" and "boring" are the two words that come to mind to explain this bomb.I don't really want to have to go through the movie again. All I can say is that this "sequel" is an insult to the original "Christmas Vacation" film. It's simply not very funny.But, at least the film does have a nice conclusion for Eddie that assures that he likely won't have to mooch off of the Griswold family for quite some time, and that would make Clark feel a whole lot better.

Who gave these people money to make a movie? There was nothing funny about it. The fact that the farting dog was the funniest thing about this piece of sickness says it all. First of all, it has nothing to do with Christmas, it just took the name and counted on all those people who liked the Chevy Chase original. They took Randy 'I have no talent, I m just a fat and sweaty pig' Quaid (the only wrong thing about part 1) and made a 'movie' about him...There are only morons in his family, but not the 'aren't they cute' kinda moronic, but the 'don t touch me' kinda moronic. Watching this pile of dirt helps you hope that everyone who takes part in it DIES! They didn't even bother to get the effects in order...when they re on the boat, the only thing that moves is the fake background...when pigface Quaid is in the water you can tell by the lighting that it's in a studio. This movie was sexist (uncle Nick), racist (uncle Nick) and should never have been made..never...throwing the money into a volcano would have had so much more use.Well I hope I reached some of you...Nobody warned me and now I m scarred for life Merry F*cking Christmas