The Greatest NBC Network Movie that has ever aired on TV was....
Not this one!
I was thinking positive before this movie aired that it might be really funny though as it turned out it seemed to be weak in dialoge and cartoonish.
I believe most people who spoke negatively about it before it even aired last week knew that it being a tv movie could never be all that great. So with that in mind it was already predicted to be a disaster. The writing was terrible. The characters were wasted by a weak script and a poor storyline. It should not even be compared to the theatrical releases of the series because it was a tv movie and the network thought it would appeal to a family audience?
Who really knows? I admit it was so bad I could hardly pay attention to it at times as it dragged along very slowly. If they ever come out with a National Lampoon's Vacation DVD box set of the entire series they should leave this one out. I do not think the acting or the actors were at fault here, except for maybe agreeing to do this film despite it had a horrible script??? The real blame goes to the writers,director and network for dishing out such a crappy imitation. Whomever pitched this to NBC and whomever ok'd it must have been hitting the crack pipe hard at the time!
It is insulting that this network would assume that all their viewers are morons and would actually be entertained by this. What if?.....Had this been properly written and directed by (i.e. John Hughes) or someone who was involved in the orignial Christmas Vacation movie in addition to be structured for a theatrical release it might have worked? Of course there would have to be a totally different storyline.
Bottom line is this was really lame and there is no doubt that many of us here that was let down by this tv movie could have thought up a funnier screenplay. If you like tv movies like "Return to Gilligans Island" or any of the other tv shows or movies that they have tried to make into a nostalgic tv special, you might then like this? It seems that most of the people who are now posting on here have a sincere passion for the originals and are venting their anger here are really warranted for their disgust.
NBC sucks! If they a smart they will sell this to another network just to ditch any assosiation with it. National Lampoon should be dropped from the title especially. They should show it to War prisoners like "Saddam Hussain" over and over because it would a extreme form of torture to have to view this more than once. Sorry....That is just my opinion".