The Griswald's anyone - Johnson Family Vacation (2004) Discussion

[–] vaxt 21 years ago

Wow, you must be the first to notice the similarities.

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[–] 21 years ago

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[–] Charlie2008 21 years ago

Hollywood rarely puts out anything original. Maybe it's because writer and producers can't come up with ideas, or maybe it's simply because they'd rather do something tried and true than risk money on a new concept. Unfortunately, hollywood can get away with this because people are still going to see derived material this and 13 Going on 30. Sadly, there are probably many original scripts out there that will never get produced.

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[–] JJohns 21 years ago

"Sadly, there are probably many original scripts out there that will never get
produced".

I couldn't agree with you more, but lets give them the benefit of the doubt. I still like being surprised every once in a while with a good screenplay. You know what unoriginal movies like these and others mentioned show me? It shows me that I need to cut the time I waste in watching these movies and do something more constructive. That's just me, not a suggestion.

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[–] gigantorwang 21 years ago

Just the fact alone that I saw that this family drives around an Escalade is reason enough for me to discard it as trash.

No doubt it will be full of black people making jokes about white people as this movie is a complete rip off of National Lampoons Vacation. May as well call the move "National Lampoons BLACK FAMILY Vacation", although I'm fairly certain they wouldn't want their name associated with this piece of garbage.

Save your money and go see The Punisher this Friday.

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[–] bluetunehead 21 years ago

your comment was fine until you said to go see The Punisher.

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[–] Cewl323 21 years ago

I'm so tired of people jumping on the rip off argument all the time. Everytime any movie ever comes out, its ripping something else off. Your little punisher statement, I'm sorry to do this to you man, Punisher is a remake. Dolph Lundgren played him in the 1989 version. Plus it's not an original idea, its and adaptation (good movie) from a story that appeared in a comic. I'm not saying it wont be good, I wanna see it, I read the comic when I was a kid for god sake, but everything rips everything off. There are so many movies, it's tough these days to think of new *beep* to deal with. So all I can say to all of you on this post is, if you don't think there are enough killer scripts out there, jump on your little word processor and bust one out... harder than it sounds I'm sure.

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[–] Cewl323 21 years ago

Just to make things clear, I'm not saying Johnson family vacation is good. I wouldn't see it in theatres if I was under the impression I was getting laid afterwards. I just wanted to point out that the rip off argument is tired.

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[–] Goose15 21 years ago

Well, there's a difference between a "rip-off", a "remake" and an "adaption". The Punisher is basically an adaption of the comic book (just like X-Men, Spiderman, and the Hulk). It's not ripping off these sources but adding to them or, in a way, trying to pay respect to their popularity (in regards to Dolph's version of the Punisher, that's just better left forgotten - horrible to say the least and about 3 people saw it).

A "remake" is just that. Dawn of the Dead in theaters is a remake. It's not ripping off the original (in fact a remake in essence pays homage to the original), just another ACKNOWLEDGED version or update on it. Same with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Some remakes works, others don't. Do NOT think we need to remake Cassablanca with Bennifer.

This movie, in my opinion, is a rip-off. Same basic plot, same basic situations, same basic family as NL's Vacation (and it does not acknowledge Vacation as the source of the material or plot). There can be a fine line, though. If National Lampoon had made this movie, you could argue that it was a remake.

Final point - there ALWAYS something original to make or at least to present in an original way. Take Memento and Identity for instance. While both were murder mysteries, and relied on our knowledge of a certain genre, they were both hugely original in story and execution.

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[–] gris83 21 years ago

Oh by the way....the original National Lampoon's Vacation had a bigger opening weekend then Johnson Family Vacation 21 years ago, and brought in close to 2 million dollars more!

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[–] ijonesiii 19 years ago

This blatant rip-off of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION made very little effort to disguise its unoriginality...very little.

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[–] PeterBlues 17 years ago

oh yeah, that would've been something, i love those movies. this, as most seems to agree, don't come close. but this is getting a sequal it seems.

scraping the bottom of the collecting box,
all out of money, it's come to a stop,
no more of the good life,
my savings have all gone out,
and i noticed quick,
there's nothing bit by bit,
there's nothing left to cough up,
i've emptied the bottom of the collecting box.

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