vegas vacation is the fourth film starring chevy chase and beverly d’angelo as the heads of the hapless griswold family .
as with the other three films , their two children , rusty and audrey , are played by a revolving series of actors .
this time ethan embry and marisol nichols fill the roles .
also back , is cousin eddie ( randy quaid ) , the slob relative who seems to bring problems wherever he goes .
in vegas vacation clark griswold ( chase ) decides to take the family on vacation to las vegas so that he and wife ellen ( d’angelo ) can renew their wedding vows .
it is at this point when comedy is supposed to ensue .
apparently the filmmakers thought that putting the griswolds into las vegas would be so funny on its own that they wouldn’t bother to write any jokes into the script .
at least that’s the way it looks when watching this turkey .
about half way through vegas vacation i began to have serious doubts as to whether there would actually be a single laugh in the entire film , since there had been none up to that point .
by the end of the movie i had actually snickered a couple of times , and i had smiled at a couple of gags .
i might add that none of the funny ( and i use the term loosely ) moments came as a result of anything chase , d’angelo or quaid were involved in .
they might as well have stayed home for as much as they contributed to this film .
the two best things in this movie were ethan embry and marisol nichols as the griswold kids , who manage to have a couple of their own adventures .
rusty becomes a vegas high roller , providing most of the film’s best moments .
every time chase and quaid were involved in a gag , it just made it more and more apparent that they should have stopped this series after the third film .
which brings me to the best moment of the film .
the griswolds are driving down the highway and holiday road ( the theme from the original vacation ) begins to play .
christie brinkley and her red ferrari ( also from the first movie ) drive by .
it was a cute moment , but all it really did was remind me just how funny the first film had been , and just how far that this series has fallen .
too bad .