Watch National Lampoon's European Vacation For Free

It is a performances centric movie

Best movie ever!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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

There's some funny stuff here while traveling to Europe with the Griswalds. Full of misadventures, slapstick humor, action, and a little raunchy fun. It's wild comedy from the family's European tour from start to finish. A fast-paced plot with some wild acting. Grade B

The Griswolds (changed to "Griswalds" for this outing) are back and off to Europe after winning the free trip on a game-show. Predictable and inferior, likely the weakest of the series, but still offers some worthy laughs nonetheless. Both kids are replaced, but the recasting has since become a fun ongoing gimmick in the following films. Perhaps working Randy Quaid back into the plot somehow would've made this holiday more memorable? Despite its flaws, the concept of sightseeing with Sparky and his fam still "works" per se, so this installment is far from a complete waste. Followed by NATIONAL LAMPOON'S Christmas VACTION.★★ (out of four)

My first exposure to a National Lampoon movie and it wasn't a great experience. This is largely an unfunny comedy that, despite best intentions, suffers from a weak script in which almost all of the laughs are predictable in the extreme and can be spotted a mile off. This means that the actual laugh factor is low, because genuine laughs are few and far between.The story is a light one in which Chevy Chase and his family spend two weeks travelling around various destinations in Europe. There are the expected cultural and fish-out-of-water laughs here, but I appreciated that most of the humour comes from the 'dumb Americans on holiday' stereotypes. Chase and D'Angelo are great value as the parents, the kids less so; Jason Lively (NIGHT OF THE CREEPS) tries hard but his character is unappealing, while Dana Hill is plain over the top and annoying.The good thing about these movies is that they're fast paced, although European Vacation does slow down for the laboured climax which is the worst part of the entire movie. Still, there are some good bits here, mainly involving the likes of cameoing stars such as Eric Idle, Robbie Coltrane, John Astin, and Paul Bartel.

When the Griswolds accidentally win a trip to Europe on a TV show, they happily decide to go. But the family's name would not be Griswold if everything went without complication. In London, they see Big Ben and Parliament extensively, but only after Clark learns to drive on the left side by not doing so.In Paris, Rusty's hormones disastrously spring to life. In Germany, the Griswolds visit the wrong relatives and in Italy, the family gets in touch with crime and a videotape that was in the camera that was stolen back in Paris. In addition, Audrey, who is in love, keeps ringing up the phone bill, Rusty keeps hitting on girls, and Ellen keeps keeping them all together when times are bad.....It's easily the weakest of the four movies, yet EV has a certain charm to it, whether it be cameos from famous people in a particular country, or Clark spouting out inane one liners, you cannot help but smile at it.But that's the problem, you only ever smile, never laugh or chuckle, which is a shame, because the book ending films were hilarious.It gets very boring at times too, and the jokes get recycled time and time again, especially the running joke of the family not understanding the language, and the locals being derogatory toward them. Funny the first time, tiresome come the fifth.Throw in some kind of heist, and you have your film, albeit a very average one