YMMV / National Lampoon's European Vacation

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The family ends up knocking over Stonehenge by accidentally backing into the rocks. This seems like the sort of over-the-top chaos that could only happen to the Griswalds, but this wouldn't have been the first time the stones had been knocked over (it even happened back in the 19th Century◊), or vandalized, or had pieces chipped off as souvenirs. This is why you're not even allowed to get close enough to touch the stones themselves anymore.
• Broken Base: Whether the National Stereotypes make it hilarious or awful. Amusingly, European viewers are about as equally split as American ones.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Audrey appeared in an Imagine Spot where she ate all kinds of desserts until she was full, Balloon Belly and all. This was Played for Laughs. In Real Life, actress Dana Hill (who had been a diabetic since her early teens) died at age 32 of a stroke brought on by her condition.
  • Also there is an Imagine Spot of Ellen's where she and Clark go to see the Royal Family of Britain where the then-Princess Diana is enthralled by Clark's charms only for him to turn her down repeatedly. This was when the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana was presented in the media as that of a Happily Married couple and was about seven years before the couple separated, the secrets of their infidelities and marital troubles were revealed, and twelve years before her death.
  • Since 9/11, the final scene of Clark stumbling into the plane's cockpit and almost crashing the plane into the Statue of Liberty.
• Narm: The depiction of Europe as a few decades or even centuries behind America. Becomes Narm Charm for some as its so over-the-top ridiculous.
• Nightmare Fuel: Audrey's literal nightmare. She's sitting at a fancy table as waiters begin piling more and more food in front of her, until she becomes so fat that the buttons on her shirt begin to pop. Not helped by the Jaws-style music playing in the scene.
• One-Scene Wonder: The French Jerk waiter who insults the Griswold family while hiding behind the language barrier and sporting an enormous smile.
• Retroactive Recognition: The British man in the hotel bathroom is Robbie Coltrane, who was an occasional face on British TV at the time but unknown internationally.
• Sequel Displacement: Wait, this came out before Christmas Vacation?
• Sequelitis:
  • With a different director, no creative input from Harold Ramis or Chevy Chase (and technically not from John Hughes either, beyond them lifting a few unused bits from his screenplay for the first film), completely different characterization for Russ and Audrey, and some of the better gags being telegraphed too far in advance, European Vacation is nowhere near as beloved as its predecessor or its follow-up Christmas Vacation.
  • The fact that its budget was $2 million more than that of the first movie ($17 million compared to the first film's $15 million) yet everything about it including sets, writing, and camera quality makes it look more like a TV movie made for less than half that price is likely to drive viewers away as well. In addition to the noticeably cheaper look, the film starting with the intro of a goofy TV game show has led some fans to believe European Vacation was intended to be a TV movie in the first place.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The family travel to and from Europe on PanAm Airlines which would cease to exist six years after the movie came out.
  • In 1985 when European Vacation was made, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany (commonly known as West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (commonly known as East Germany). The two Germanys would reunite in 1990.

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