Broad, sketchlike, and arbitrarily assembled, Amy Heckerling’s 1985 film fritters away the considerable credit of relative psychological realism and dramatically consistent situations built up by its predecessor, Harold Ramis’s 1983 National Lampoon’s Vacation. Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo are still the archetypally square suburban Chicago couple, the Griswolds, though their children have grown up into Dana Hill and Jason Lively. They win a European tour on a TV game show, which gives rise to a typical Reagan-era range of xenophobic gags. With John Astin, Paul Bartel, Eric Idle, and Victor Lanoux.
