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.
