Not a good movie, and here's why...
National Lampoon's European Vacation is simply not a good movie. It's biggest flaws lie in the writing, the acting, and the directing, things that pretty much make up a movie. The script is terrible. Hard to believe it was co-written by John Hughes, but then he wrote crap like Home Alone 3 and Flubber, so he was not without fault. There's really no story to this one, and what makes it differ from the other Vacation movies is that this one has no story goal. In the first movie, it was getting to Walley World. In Christmas Vacation, it was all about having the perfect family Christmas. In Vegas Vacation, all about Clark and Ellen rekindling their marriage. Though times got tough and many obstacles got in their way, the Griswolds overcame and Clark achieved what he'd set out to do. In European Vacation, it's just the family going to several countries with small side stories that accompany them. Then at the end they go home. No real goal there. Just seeing Europe. It's like a scripted documentary that they TRIED adding comedy too. Speaking of which, there's no comedy to be found. The script has dozens of jokes, but they're not funny! Seriously, this movie is NOT funny in the least. Even if a line sounds funny, the actor's delivery makes it sound bad. Even Eric Idle, hilarious as he is on Monty Python and his many other works, is not funny here. His performance seems forced, as if he hates what he's saying and doing but knows he has a contract to honor.
The gags suck. Just forced, over-done, and stupid.
Republic of Griswold and voting on things: not funny.
"She queens...and vacuums." Not funny.
That constant hitting people with the car: not funny.
The scene on the train: not funny.
Just any of these moments in the film meant to be funny are NOT funny.
The clothes they end up choosing in Italy: not funny, they just look ridiculous, plus why don't they wear these clothes again for the rest of the film? What a waste of a perfectly good song and scene.
In short, this script seems like it was written by people who dislike Europeans and set out to insult them for no foreseeable reason. Maybe John Hughes and the National Lampoon team visited France and Germany and people there were rude to them, so to get back at the people in those countries, they wrote this movie.
It relies on stereotypes. The English are overly nice, the French are overly rude, Germans are overly violent... Stereotypical, pure and simple.
What if this were National Lampoon's Asian Vacation? They'd probably have everybody in the movie be a Martial artist. I'm surprised that they didn't make Germany full of Nazis.
Amy Heckerling did a poor job of directing. Why couldn't they get back Harold Ramis? She seems to have an obsession with showing breasts, and going out of the way to do so. At least in the first Vacation it was at appropriate times. (Shower, pool).
The actors seemed to have difficulty with what they had and couldn't make it work, mainly because the director couldn't.
Now, the acting is horrible. Seriously, nobody is good in this movie. Not even Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo, who are familiar with their characters, unlike the kids, but I'll get to them shortly. Were they told to ignore the development from the first film and make them behave a certain way here? I think that's what happened, because Clark in this film was quite different than in the last one. In European Vacation, Clark Griswold comes off as a selfish, inconsiderate boob who treats his family horribly. He forces them to do what HE wants. He doesn't care if they don't want to, because it's apparently all about what Clark wants. I realize this is the only vacation in the series he doesn't pay for, but still that's no excuse. If I were unfamiliar with this series of movies and just saw this one, I'd assume Clark was abusive. Yes, he acts like a nutjob in the other films, but there it's funny. Here, it's not. It's down played to a certain degree of just being mean.
In the first movie he was incompetent and selfish, sure, but he seemed to care more about what his family wanted. Plus, if you remember, he called Rusty a man. In European Vacation, he says, "you're not a man, Russ." What happened there? You're supposed to root for him too. You want him to achieve his goal. Not here. Even if he had a goal, you'd still want those Germans to hang him.
But the worst acting in the whole film comes from the worst actors in the whole film (goes without saying). The kids. Jason Lively and Dana Hill were horrible. Just awful. They were just not believeable in these roles. The kids in the first film, and in the other two, I could believe they were a part of this family. Not here. Plus all Rusty and Audrey do is WHINE and COMPLAIN *NON-STOP* throughout the ENTIRE movie. It gets OLD very fast! At NO point could they just try to enjoy themselves. At no point. Just ENDLESS WHINING.
They're terrible actors, both of them. Just what sort of time constraints were they under when casting these roles? Did they have to find two actors in under an hour? I hope the casting director was kicked out of the business.
The only real highlight of the movie is the soundtrack. "New Looks" by Dr. John is terrific.
Bottom line: National Lampoon's European Vacation is bad. Bad writing, bad acting, bad directing. It's just a really dull, unpleasant movie. I'd just pretend it doesn't exist and watch the other three films. Maybe that's why they made Rusty and Audrey younger in Christmas Vacation, because they didn't want another round of griping teenagers.
My opinions.