Episode 24: Vegas Vacation (1997)

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Chickens all out ready when the torches passed to a new generation. Ten years dancing Lessons in how You're paying. A Somebody Gonna get Chevy Chase Beverly di'angelo, Randy Quay. Vegas Vacation Grated PG starts Friday, February fourteen at a theater near you. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Chasing Chevy Chase Podcast.

I am one of your hosts from the Culture Cast, Christashi, and I'm joined by my two good friends, all the way from the West Coast, which Las Vegas is in between here and there, your friend and mine, Mark Begley of Cambridge and with Sean and Wake Up Heavy. Part six coming out and all. The way from the projection booth. He's the dealer playing. He's the dealer who asks you what number am I thinking?

Of the projection booth's own Mike White, why don't you. Give me half your money you're gonna bet then we'll go out back I'll kick you in the nuts and we'll call the day My God. I love Wallace Sean, he is so good. On this show, we talk about the works of Chevy Chase. If that wasn't obvious by the title, apparently the title of the show is too long or too short or who knows.

At this point, who cares? Really, this show has become the comedy equivalent of hell. On the show, we talk about Chevy Chase and the roles and works of our dear friend, mister Chase. And we're here at the end. More or less.

We have one more episode past this one, but this is really the final Chevy Chase vehicle. This is the final the Vegas well, there's only one Vegas vacation, but this is the final vacation film as well. We've talked about all three other ones up until this point, and technically the one that comes after this one with vacation, but this is the final kind of I guess proper Vegas or a vacation film, and we're going to talk about that. We'll probably talk a little bit about the show as a whole, and maybe some of our thoughts. But I am very curious because I was the only one I believe who had seen this movie going into this episode.

And I've seen this movie a lot, like a lot, a lot, and I'm very curious because I don't think anyone in this podcast was expecting this movie to be good. But I'm very curious. Starting with Mike, what did you think of Vegas Vacation? Yeah, I wasn't expecting it to be good. And do you think.

This is good? I don't, are you talking to You're looking at it? Well, Chris is like, Chris is like, nobody expected this to be good, and I'm like, yeah, no, I didn't, and. It's not good right. Well, see, I don't know that is what I said.

Like, I don't know where anyone's gonna come in at this movie, because there's parts of this movie that are good and there's parts of this movie that are really bad, like exactly, like, oh yeah. This movie is so uneven, but when it's funny, it's hilarious. I found myself just cracking up at so much stuff. But none of the stuff I was laughing at really had anything to do with Chevy Chase other than Wallace Shawan just mercilessly roasting him. And I'm glad that chevy Chase never gets any sort of like revenge.

John Wallace Shawn, like Walla Shawn is the hero of this movie, and all the stuff with the kids and Beverly D'Angelo and especially fucking Wayne Newton is amazing. But chevy Chase is the worst part of. This Yeah, I mean, that's that's what we've been saying for at least ten episodes now right. For almost a decade. He is the lowest common denominator of a lot of these movies, and.

And by a substantial margin. Mark, that's the problem. It's not like, it's not like, oh, Jevy Chase is is the worst part of an already kind of mediocre movie. It's like, now, Jevy Chase is the worst part of a movie that him being this bad actively hurts effectively the rest of the movie. Like Copson Roberson's actually probably somewhat of a decent movie without chevy Chase, this movie would have been a better movie if they had just been like, well, Clark got killed off screen, Clark Clark dived in between now and then.

Like and don't even give like a claymation version of his death, and then like somebody else walking around with half a body for the rest of the movie. I'm talking about beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, of course, don't even do that. Just yeah, Clark died. Yeah, he had a fatal accident.

His food preservatives caused him to get cancer, and he died a slow, painful death over the last few years. And now he's dead. We start with Clark Griswold's funeral, and let's go celebrate and have a proper vacation and go to Vegas. Can I say, for me, Clark Griswold in this movie this is you guys are gonna laugh. This is for me, the worst Chevy Chase role of this entire show.

He is such a fucking asshole in this movie in a way that like his character of Clark Griswold in this movie is a degenerate, gambling, fucking asshole who loses fifty thousand dollars. Essentially. I went and looked, it's essentially doubled. Anytime they mentioned money in this movie, double it. And that's how much it's worth.

Now. He lost about fifty thousand dollars in less than a week in Las Vegas as a guy who and here's the thing, I don't understand just the logic and the math here. Are they destitute now that he lost all this money? Well, don't they kind of get it back towards the end? I mean they've got the four cars?

Do they do? But my question is, like before the deus X said sids the duse x sid Caesar of the. Whole right right? Yeah, before that happens, are they now financially destitute because he gambled away all their money? Oh?

Yeah? Absolutely? What the fuck is he getting paid? Is he getting paid at his job? Then?

Is he not like a an upper up at his job to some extent? Like I don't understand. This is when people had had savings accounts. Chris, Yeah, remember remember those days. I understand the concepts here, it's just it's what's hard for me to understand is like they went to Vegas, and at this point in our history with Vegas like there were there wasn't a lot of gambling in the midwest of our country, so you did have to go to these places to gamble.

They were able to travel to Vegas, and this is what is financially destitute to them. That's that's my problem. It's like the math mob doesn't make sense other than that, like, this movie has problems, but I was trying to understand the math last night. I was like, wait a second, they're broke. Just took it as he blew their savings, not like, yeah, they're now homeless, and yeah, because he didn't.

Like leverage the house or anything, take out a loan on the house, a second mortgage or something that would have been actually funnier if he had really gone for it. But that's kind of what I'm getting at. It's like it doesn't go far enough and exactly, and in not going far enough, it doesn't make any sense like they're making they're making such a big deal out of it, and it's not really that big of a deal. Honestly, this is just you guys are gonna laugh. This is a movie about middle class boomer shtheads who lose a little bit of money in Vegas and think it's the end of the world.

And that is a really bad taste in my mouth in twenty twenty five is kuy to what I'm getting at, And Chevy Chase's character is the worst example of that. He is such an asshole in this movie, and he's an unlikable character. What's hilarious is by the end of the movie, I'm like, you know, Cousin Eddie is my favorite character in the series, and Cousin Eddie is so likable and kind of like sympathetic in this movie and he's putting up with Clark shit the entire film, and You're just like, why hasn't Cousin Eddie just decked this motherfucker? Like for real, for me, Cousin Eddi was the was the second worst part of this film. Like he didn't need to be here at all.

No, he sure didn't. I'll agree with you on that. I mean there was him coming in, Eddie, Yeah, oh yeah, him coming in and being cooler as Clark is almost winning, as he's finally pushes with the dealer, you know that kind of stuff. But yeah, the rest of it, I'm like, this, this sucks. This sucks because when Cousinetti's around, Clark is around, and like I said, Clark's the worst part of this thing.

And I'm so surprised that when they show up in Vegas and there's a guy, a limo driver waiting for them and they end up showing up at what the mirage, I think they stay at or I don't remember. Yeah, because Vegas is a mirage, right. But they end up staying there and I'm like, this is a really nice room. Yeah, they don't have enough rooms for the kids. They should have given them each their own room.

But I was like so surprised because it seems like Clark is so clueless that he wouldn't know how to rent a limo, get a limo driver out there, get a nice room. It just feels like he would have been like, no, no, we're going to stay off the strip and save some money. But I guess this whole thing is that his train has finally come in, that he can finally have this bonus money and be able to give his family a nice vacation, which is you know, oh, that's very surprising. Well, they seem surprised though, that the limo is there to pick them up, so I kind of got confused at that point. I'm like, I started thinking it was one of the trips that they won, you know, in fast, and I'm like, wait a minute, no, no, no, no, this is this was all their idea.

But yeah, that's true. And I kept thinking that there was another family named Griswold and they were going to get like, no, no, it's actually doctor Griswold or something right. And they go to the wrong hotel maybe, or they'd do goal so they do that. But I was I was actually surprised for one thing. I thought this was a like direct to video just cheap out.

You know, let's we still have the rights to this property. Let's throw another one together. And I was really surprised at how much location shooting there was. They were actually in casinos, that they were actually on the strip, that they were actually at the old. Neon graveyard thing.

For Audrey's dance scene. I was like, I was surprised she didn't fall off that thing that she was on. I mean, her cousin even says like, oh, she's going to fall and break her neck, and no she doesn't. Yeah, no, I was okay. So, like Mike, I had not seen this one either, And because of those reasons, I don't even know when I became aware that there was a fourth Vacation movie.

But I was just like, eh, I'm good with the three that I've seen, and uh so I kind of go into these now really I feel it. I'm like negative, I'm just filled with anxiety, like I got to sit through another hour and a half of bullshit Chevy Chase nonsense for this fucking show we decided to do. And then after a while I start loosening up and I'm like, okay, okay, this is not that bad. And what I enjoyed about this one was that we actually get stories of the other characters. We branch off, and I'm like, thank god, we have this at least.

And then anytime they go back to Chevy Chase, It's like, Okay, you know, here we go again. But I don't think they do it a little bit. In European Vacation, Rusty sort of has a little side quest and Audrey's just, you know whatever, worried about being miserable and her boyfriend Lewis. That's what she is. That's the kids, that's about it.

The kids don't do anything in Christmas Vacation. They don't really do anything in the first movie. They do a lot in European Vacation. Yeah, that's what that's what Yah, that's what he was saying. When you said Juliet Lewis, I was like, that wasn't Juliet Lewis That in European Vacation's.

Right, Yeah, Beverly DeAngelo's never had a B story. No, she's always just like you know, the putting one. Well, I guess the thing in European Vacation with the the nude tape is kind of as close as we ever get. Yeah, but she doesn't go. I mean she's separated from him in this movie, like physically they're not together.

She is, she's ransomed at the end of the movie. That's what I'm saying. It's like, that's the closest we get this is. This is again like Chevy Chevy Chevy j shouldn't have even been in this movie. Like, that's not her with agency though, I mean she's she's actually actively pursuing Wayne Newton.

She have agency in this movie. Though. By the end of it, she's like, I want to go back to Chevy Chase, I want to go to Clark. Wayne Newton's a creep too. So it is so good.

Though I don't say I'm not I'm not saying pick either of them. I'm saying shit, if anything, go pick Larry. The guy who's dancing on stage was Sigfried and Roy. I'm not advocating for. Frankly, it looked like a real Sigfreedom and Roy Show too.

I was so oppressed by that. Yeah, they got they got permission to shoot a lot of stuff there. Man, that was great. I'm say, like, for me, this film at the end of the like at the end of the day, like, yeah, there's a lot of problems with it. But I think for me, one of the biggest successes of this movie is it's kind of like a time capsule of a very weird time in Las Vegas history.

And I say that because and you guys remember this as well as I do, and I was actually went to Vegas as part of this like weird initiative. There was this initiative in the late nineties early two thousands of like Vegas is a place for families. Vegas is a travel destination for you and your family. And you'll notice in this movie, like anytime there are shots of like other audiences other than the Grizwolds, it's always families. It's never just like yeah yeah.

And that was a whole initiative in the in the late nineties early two thousands for Vegas to kind of get more people there that weren't just degenerate gamblers to come. With their families yeah. I think they pushed that, Like the Vegas Travel Bureau or Film whatever bureau was like, hey, you know, come make your promote this. That's why they're like able to shoot everywhere, right Yeah, And it's weird commercial for Las Vegas. It is, like and that's and that's the big like takeaway for me with this movie is it's a it's a time capsule, very specific time and in Las Vegas's history that I don't think has aged well because I don't understand and have never understood the concept like this is a place for families, Like no, it's really fucking not like well.

Yeah, I love how they react where they're like Vegas. What like normally I'd be like, oh, cool Vegas. That sounds great. But I mean that was before my last trip out there last year, where I was just like this place is a fucking hellhole now, like it was so fucking expensive, Like the pandemic just ruined Las Vegas, like all those things. And I know they make a joke of it here where Eddie takes them to that horrible buffet, but like the buffets in Vegas were a thing, and the buffets you could get like there's always these specials where it's like, oh, come on in and get a steak for two ninety nine and you know you'll get one hundred dollars worth of chips and you can play and all this kind of stuff.

It's like, okay, great Vegas was there to get you to play games and to have a good time. There was one trip that we took to Vegas, or I'm getting off topic. There's one trip we took to Vegas where we just did shit at every single hotel. Like we took a fucking gondola ride, we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, we saw all the glass, we saw the at the Balajio, we did they had a oh, Mandalay Bay had an aquarium. They had a zoo at the.

Mara Pate show, the Pirate Show. Yes, we hit every fucking thing as we run along there and it was like okay, so like there's all of this stuff to do, and I was very happy with that. Last time I went there was just like, there's nothing fucking do around here anymore other than I don't know what, spend way too much money on food and gambling, and I'm like, yep, I yeah, no comps anymore. No cocktail waitresses coming around saying what can I get you as soon as you sit down at the table. Now it's like, well, if you hit a certain amount and you got the card and your card starts registering that you're gambling enough, then you might get a cocktail waitress to come by, and that's it.

I'm like, this sucks, man, this is terrible. It's actually worse than that. When I was in Vegas a month ago, there was we were standing in a crabs machine, like one of the bubble Craft's machine, playing and I wanted to drink. And I was with my folks for a podcast thing, and my mom and dadd each wanted a bottle of water. But they wouldn't bring us three drinks because they can only bring you two drinks per machine, because that's the people.

And I'm just like, a fucking bottle of water, right, And it was probably what ten bucks? Well, no, it was free, Like, oh wow. Drinks are free if you're sitting gambling, Like. At least you got some free drinks, jesus. I mean the mixed drinks I'm not sure have alcohol in them anymore.

But you can get a seltzer, which has seven percent alcohol, So that's guaranteed they can't water that down. So I bought a like a smoothie with alcohol in it. It was about maybe eight to ten ounces twenty two dollars. I believe it. That sounds about right.

Yeah, that was fucking crazy. Yeah, And that's you know, That's the thing that kind of like for me about this movie is really weird is looking at Vegas of nineteen ninety six, nineteen ninety seven, it does feel so like pastoral and cliched now because like Vegas is such as like a money making operation. And I'm not saying it wasn't then, but this just feels like they were really selling that this is a travel destination for family. No, this is a money making operation to take as much from you as humanly positive. The Bilk is on at all times, like constant, and it's weird to me that the movie kind of makes light of that and not in a fun way, like the Chevy chase of it all, like with him being a degenerate gambler by the end of it, I'm just like, what is this dude's problem?

He's like, if I could just get the money back, It's like, oh my god, Like this isn't. I just say though, that I'm glad that's his problem in this, Like he's really an idiot, Like he just I like that that's his thing and not you know, chasing skirt or whatever. I like that he gets totally sucked into this point. And Kisty Brinkley's like, no, thanks, actually fucks up, you know, I mean, he really fucks up in this. That to me is more genuine than any of the like, oh, you know, whoops, I my Chris, I took down a Christmas tree that's way too big for my house, like whoopsies, Like, yeah, he's really fucking up here.

I appreciated that. And I got to say eighties were very low, low stress, Yeah, low steaks. I got to say, though, I think my favorite part, and Mike Carti alluded to it is Eddie's Casino that I absolutely loved that scene, Like that pick a number coin toss that was great. I mean, which hand is it? For the recond None of these games would really exist because the odds for the player are way too high.

The players get true fifty percent, like literally, like Rock Paper scissors, fucking. Thirty percent the number though, I mean no, I mean unless the guy had to write it down. I love guess the number because it's like that's the most unfair one. But coin flip. No casino would ever have a coin flip gave the odds or like people would be walking out of there with just like stacks of money, you know, good lit.

It was. That was so great though. I was like, this is the kind of casino I would go to. Actually, yeah, it was so good and yeah, just so di all right and just so run down and everything. I'm like, yeah, this is old Vegas.

This is great. Yeah, And it was just weird that Eddie has to show up at all in this that he just now happens to be living outside of Vegas. I guess said this was introduction. I'm like, how the fuck did he find him? Right?

But like, Eddie was never this I mean maybe in the last one, but that it just feels like he's getting more and more redneck each time, and I really don't care for it. I just think that he, yes, he's very low class, but I think the very first time we see Eddie was much better than this Eddie of today. I don't know, there's no nuance with this character. I mean, he's no he's cooking chicken on rocks at one point, which is I mean, grulishly cartoonish. It's it's it's cartoony like it it's verge.

It's gone over parody and kind of like satire into cartoony. Like, oh, it's very cartoony and so much super cartoon. So much of this movie is cartoony. Like there's a moment where Chevy Chase is vertically climbing up the hoover dam and he's just fucking insane. It's so it's like looney to.

The soundtrack is enforcing that. The soundtrack is all like, I'm surprised there weren't like cartoon sound effects during some of that. Yeah yeah, why not? Fucking who cares? Sure, Yeah yeah that.

I mean what once we get to like past that and we have the kids starting to go off on their own and stuff, then I'm like, okay, Like this is gonna be the strangest sense I've I've said in a long time. Ethan Embry is kind of the best part of this movie, which is really strange. He's so good though most things he's in he is fuck here, He's so good. And I love this thing with these old guys, and one of them I think is Fred Weintraub, the producer, right, and just like you know, oh, we're gonna teach out a dress and just these like they almost like made. Guys, you know, yeah, silly from Philly.

And then it's like, oh, your usual table, mister, Papa Girichio. I was expecting him to get deep into the mom like you know that was going to be his like, whoopsies, we got this thing we need you to do, Papa Georgia. Because she doesn't get into the exotic dancing nearly as much as I wanted her to. I was like, she has that scene with the dress and I was like, well, the dress is nice. Actually it's not Pucci at all, at least in my opinion.

I was like, oh no, she should totally start to embrace her in her Hucci and be much more like her cousin. And I like that little thing of like Club Ariola that you see at the beginning, and when they talk about her like, oh, her pictures up all over Vegas, I was like, oh, well that's kind of funny, ha ha, and then that it doesn't go as as far as it should. But I really was hoping that it would go very, very far. He kisses his daughter on the fucking mouth by the Yeah, well. That's how you go back to the first movie, Daddy says, yeah, I do it better.

Well, I know, I'm just I'm just pointing that out in case anybody else missed it, that the movie is the movie at least understands its own continuity somewhat, I will say. With your family, yeah, yeah, but that's always. Been loving with the Griswolds, right, Like that's the joke at this It's like, I mean, it's yea in this movie. Yeah, I hardly recognize them anymore. That was nice.

That was really wish though. And this is you know, this was her first acting role, Marisol Nichols. She is the weakest of the three. And well I'm saying he's the four of the four. Yeah.

I will say the one of the bigger missed opportunities in terms of casting uh and doing research for the film, Britney Murphy was who was which would have fit? The energy she would have brought would have been so much more I think interesting. I mean, the character as written with Marisol Nichols would not have worked. It would It had to have been a little bit more like manic weirdo energy. But I think it would have worked, like I actually like in terms of like looking back on it, like you know this, I think this movie would have had probably a little bit more longevity of pretty Murphy had been you know.

Yeah, she's got a little bite to her and she can play comedy so well. And then also she would have I think, brought a little bit more interiority to the character because as it is, I don't know what motivates Audrey. Like we had those horrible things like in European vacation, I don't want to leave my boyfriend, blah blah blah, like but she's got nothing. She was fat, remember she was fat? Oh yeah, oh yeah, she's having those dreams of eating over Oh god.

Yeah, best part of that man, so good. But yeah with this one, I'm like, what's her thing like with rusties? Like what I can't be over twenty one? And just like every time he gambles, he wins, and I was like, oh, this is pretty funny. I really like this.

And he likes ass. That's the other things, Like he's just like as obsessed. Audrey's always the kind of weak, weakest written character in the movies. Unfortunately, like then, you know, some old dude doesn't know what to do with a teenage girl, right right, like to write for a teenage girl. Mostly written by Elisa Bell, so she should know, well, what the fuck, lady, Yeah, because it was Elisa Bell and the and Bob Dusk, and Bob Dusk only has one writing credit, and that's this movie.

He's mostly known for editing and for producing. And I wonder who was the one to to blame for the Clark Griswold of it all like the like And I'm not saying chevy Chase because I don't like he's is is Chevy Chase bad in this movie? Like I can't like. I don't like Clark Griswold in this movie. I think that's intentional.

But I don't think Chevy. I think chevy Chase is actually playing it correctly. I just don't like Clark Griswold. I don't think Chevy Chase is not playing this correctly. I think he's playing it no differently than he's played Clark Griswold up in this point again, maybe with a little bit more of a I am letting myself go because I am blinded by the almighty dollars, as Audrey says in the film, like that's his kind of character flaw here.

But I don't think chevy Chase is particularly bad in this movie. Really, Like the script is maybe the worst part of the movie. The script doesn't serve any It's. Not Yeah, it's not one of his lazy performances like we've had with no I mean. Christmas Wold never has been though, Like he's never phoned it in for Clark Griswold or for Fletch either.

Those were kind of the two roles he never really phoned it in for in terms of like things. He repeated, Yeah, I. Agree, And there are moments and here, you know, we talked last month about man in the House and the whole thing in the kitchen. With this one, when he's got the bubblegum and he's trying to fill those holes in the underground of whoever dam that was such a chevy Chase moment, and that did remind me of like a good Clark Griswold scene. But yeah, yes, you're right, I guess he's he is giving a performance here and it is just the writing is the worst part that they they're writing Clark careers like he should be written, but he's just such a dislikable character.

It's hard to feel bad for a guy who loses all of his money gambling in a way. Well, in that scene when they're at like breakfast or whatever and he has to run to a machine and or to a craps table and bet and then come back like, yeah, he's totally addicted. I mean that was nice. I kind of like like showing just how awful he is right now. And I every scene with him and Wallace Sean.

I just love Wallace Sean just sticking it to him every fucking time, and just those looks that he is where like his mouth will turn twisted and stuff like, eh, what do you know? Twenty one? Yeah, it's like, I love it so nice. We love wall Sean in this house. That's oh yeah, the same here.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite lines in the entire movie, What can I do with five dollars? When you go buy a bullet and rent a rent? Which, by the way, my other favorite thing about this movie is, can you imagine if a blackjack dealer in Vegas were that goddamn atagonistic? My god, he's just like reveling in the fact that this man is losing his life savings and it's just like, oh my god, like that that's the national lampoons of it all. Like I feel that in the like the subversive comedy of like a blackjack dealer with a bone to pick who's also from Ohio, which maybe is the reason he has a bone to pick with Clark Griswold.

It's never made clear what the deal is, but it does say on his tag like he's from Ohio, So maybe it's just you know, I fuck you, I'm from the Midwest. Also, they do they wear tags that. They used to. I don't know if they still do, but they definitely had like this is my hometown. It was like this weird like Vegas is made up of so many people from side different backgrounds kind of thing.

Again, they were trying to kind of take away from the reality of Vegas, which I always have a problem with because taking away from the reality of Vegas kind of you know, doesn't help people that have a problem with what Vegas stands for and what Vegas is. So in terms of taking your you know, the gambling of it all. So I don't know like, you know, there are people like Clark Griswolm. I guess the other thing I probably would have appreciated is like, obviously we never really see this in any of the other movies because there's no opportunity to gamble, but this does kind of come out of left field for Clark Griswold to be this like degenerate gambler all of a sudden. Yeah, I think that's the joke.

I mean, like, right, Vegas made a tell picture of him, right right, He's telling Rusty early on, you know, the dangers of this city and whatnot, and you know he falls victim to it really fast. Like yeah, now, Chris, did you see you were doing a series recently around Albert Brooks films. Did you watch Lost in America? Okay, because that kind of reminds me of Lost in America because it's Julie Haggerty and Albert Brooks and they buy an RV and they're traveling across the country and one of their first stops is in Vegas and she becomes an immediate gambler and loses everything. And they always talk about how they have a nest egg and they're just like and the nest Egg and she's just like, yeah, it's gone.

And then Albert Brooks has this hilarious scene where he goes in and tries to like reason with the casino owner and just like, yeah, well, you know, well this was a mistake. It happened. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, everything's great. Yeah, it's it's a really good scene. So it reminded me of this with the whole nest egg thing.

I thought that was nice. And yeah, so this whole idea of like this immediate degenerate gambler thing, I was like, Okay, yeah, I think they handle a little bit better and lost in America, but I did like that he is just so weak willed that he falls to this. But at the same time you are screaming at him throughout the entire film. At least my I'm just yelling. Oh yeah, well and and for me the I guess the other thing maybe and this is probably what the issue is, Like, Oh, they went to Vegas and he becomes a degenerate gambler.

Wow, what a creative storyline we've we've established with Las Vegas and Clark Griswold, like everyone else, has something kind of interesting and weird that they're doing, like you know, Ethan Embry and Toby Huss that whole thing, like, or Marisol Nichols and then you know with the with her cousin, or then Beverly D'Angelo with Wayne Newton, which we will talk about at some point. Yes, please fucking Wayne Newton. But then we have Clark Griswold. I don't get the appeal I'm just gonna say that right now of what Newton. Yeah, I don't get the appeal with that shirt all the way down and just like you.

Mean, like the appeal of women finding him attractive. He's a weird looking motherfucker. Always has very fake. Look, and he's got that voice that we a voice, the thing that's like a little higher pitch than it should be. Yeah, I don't I don't get anyway.

I didn't mean to no, no, no, no, no, no, it's that's that's valid. But I think I think back to the Clark Griswold of it all, like just it doesn't feel like much of a like creative like that. The parts with Walla Sean are great because again, like it's subversive to have a blackjack dealer antagonizing the player, but like Clark Griswold being a gambler, Like, wow, what a kind of lazy I guess, Like I don't, yeah, but it's this is not a lazy in a lot of ways. Like think about this franchise. This franchise kind of does some funny, interesting, weird stuff, Like it's not known for being so kind of on the nose, I mean even in this own movie, Like why is Wayne Newton in this fucking movie?

Like this is such I mean like again, like I know he's mister las Vegas and I know all that, Like to have way Newton and paint him is like a creep azoid and him willingly like being part of this is I I love it. It's fucking weird though, And like that's what I'm saying. National Lampoons, I think is more subversive than just Clark Griswold's a gambler, Like it should have been. They could have gone so down so many other avenues with with what he was getting himself into. And to just have him be tied to a fucking blackjack table most of the movie honestly kind of robs us of what could have been Chevy Chase's last really good Clark Griswold performance, because again, he's not the problem in this movie.

This movie's problem is the script really a tonally inconsistent script, and that again, like there's fun stuff and then we have to come back to Clark Griswold gambling like great, as interesting as that ever is, Like I think gambling's only been really interesting one time with Daniel Craig and Mad's Michelson in Casino Roale, Like that's high stakes, exciting, Like this is just like okay, we get it, but they go back to it so many times, Like really. Well, here's my solution to that. Clark gets in deep with the mob and Rusty has to bail him out. There you go those connections like. Push it like fucking just don't have him gamble, Like like we we even saw Clark.

We even saw a you know, Chevy Chase performance in Dirty Work where he's in with the mob. In gambling we've already kind of seen, and they did it more interesting where he keeps showing up in each of his legs or you know, arms are more broken. Just even do something like that. Don't just like, oh, he just lost all the money and they're gonna get it back at. The end, you know, I mean that's they since Christmas Vacation.

It's they're now family films. So you know that may be a look too dark, but you know, after the Eddie Casino, they could have gone to a you know, old timey mob casino and he could have gotten in really deep there and then Papa Georgio's got it coming and save them and say, oh no, this guy's okay. You're gonna make a fucking Vegas movie in the nineties post Casino and Goodfellas and not have the mob in this movie. Isn't fucking weird in and of itself. That may have been a note from the Vegas travel Board connections.

I'm wondering how much of this movie is that really in a way, like it's that whole you know, don't make it movie about the US military and if you say anything bad about them, you they can't be you know, consultants anymore. This is the same thing of like, don't make it apparent that Vegas is a place that takes people's livelihoods, blushes it down the fucking toilet. It's gotta be appealing, like you can, you know, the gambling still there, but you still got to make it appealing, like give us exterior establishing shots of like wild things going on, like oh, the dolphins or the volcano or sexy good looking people. Don't don't don't cast a don't cast an eye towards the mafia of it all, which would have been the obvious easy direction to go, like really would have especially post Goodfellas and Casino.

I'm sure they had to avoid it. Yeah, And to you, I feel like, guys, those guys that are hanging out with with mister Papa Georgio, they definitely seem like mobsters, even though they're just kind of hanging out at the table. And I'm like, real mobsters don't gamble, you know, they're they're not there to gamble, They're there to take the money. So yeah, I kind of liked a little bit more of those guys. But they were just so fun.

That was so good. They're definitely mob coded, you know. Yeah, those guys all getting their massages and stuff, and I was just like, this is so good. I love this. All those scenes are just so good man.

It's it's it's yeah, it's it's a it's a weird like towing the line, missed opportunity coding characters one way, but like again, pretending, like pretending, like anyone who sees this movie, isn't it living in a world where Goodfellas and Casino were some of the biggest fucking things that came out not five years early. Like that's I think ultimately you kind of hit the nail really on the head mark, which is post Christmas Vacation. This is a franchise that feels markedly different, and we don't get any other movies in this franchise past this movie, So who knows what it would have felt like further down the road of like we're gonna, you know, ip the shit out of Christmas Vacation and it'll be at every you know, now that it's Christmas time, we're gonna see Christmas Vacation stuff everywhere.

I was at GNC yesterday and they sell us a pre workout supplement that's Christmas Vacation branded really yeah, and the and the advertisement in the window said Shaker's full get it like play on shitters Christ and the pre workout the pre workout is lime Sherbert flavored and on the container it looks like the lime jello from fucking Christmasation. It's bizarre. I meant to take a picture to send it to you guys, but I figured I would I would get a chance to talk about like Christmas Vacation has transcended a film and it is now just like a money making operation like Star Wars before it, Like it's fucking insane because the family movie. Get that though, how many people would get there? I almost bought it yesterday just so I could show it to you guys on camps like.

The casual, even someone who has seen the movie more than once, Like would that really resonate? Like, oh, shitter's full, I get it. I don't know uugh to for them to go in your kid, I mean Christmas Vacation I think is I think Christmas Vacation is chevy Chase's lasting legacy. Like look, go, you guys in the next month and a half, are are going to kick yourselves every time you go out and see it. But you'll go out and see something with Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase's fucking face emblazoned on it, and we'll go, oh, yeah, that's the thing.

Everybody knows him like that, that's it, like and that, Yeah, I was up to say there are there's there's a worse thing. It's called not being remembered at all. Yeah. Yeah, and he's living comfortably off of those Christmas vacation royalties and the likeness rights I guarantee because for. Him, Yeah, for real money they paid son.

Yeah exactly, you make that bag, make the Yeah, he's baby. He's on some kind of tour right now. Actually I saw it on Instagram and it's all Christmas themed and it's like Chevy Chase appearing at all these places from between now and December. I'm like, okay, go for. All the charge, one hundred bucks per picture whatever, get that fucking cash man.

I don't know, I don't know. I mean, if people want to give him fucking money to take a picture with him because they liked him as Clark Griswold and Christmas vacation, cool, like you know what, Like we have friends that are doing that same racket in a way, and awesome. Fuck it. Like if you can get paid, get fucking paid. If someone wants to pay you hundred dollars to take the picture with you that I wish I could get a dollars some take picture with me?

Fuck And he don't even look like he used to, Like, he just looks like a old man now, Semmy Chase is old man. He's he's gone past the overweight, bloated Chevy Chase and he's back to just like old man Chevy Snow. Yeah, but he somehow looks more correctly aged than Wayne Newton does. Oh yeah, Okay, what I was gonna try and bring it back to that well I did for you, Mark, There you go. Well, I just wanted to say.

I just wanted to say I think this is the hottest that bever D'Angelo has looked in movie Lord. Yeah, I was just like, wait a minute. Well that dress that Wayne sends over to her. Yeah, he's a man of good taste. But I just heard her hair and I don't know if she was like put together in this one like never before.

And I was scene with her smith the Hard six where Chevy Chase is watching TV and she's coming on to him. I'm like, dude, we've said it before. I mean, why is his I even wandering when this is the woman that decided he was fine enough to marry you know, It's like, what are you thinking? Bro? Yeah?

Oh yeah, yeah. As soon as she calls him Sparky. My heart melts, you know, Wayne. He calls her Sparklet. By the way, at the end of the movie, which I don't know if you guys noticed it was sub subtitles on caught it for the first time, he calls her right as they get right as they're walking up after winning the money to get married, he calls her Sparklet, And I was like, oh, that's kind of cute like that, you know, that's a nice little character moment, honestly, like, that's that's kind of earned the Wayne Newton.

He is in one of my favorite movies of all time, and uh, of course that is The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, where he basically is playing himself as a villain. So I think him playing himself as a real shit heel in this one as well. Just this total lithario coming on to Beverly DiAngelo, and my god, when he gives her a lock of his hair as a gift, that was so fucking amazing. That was so good. I was had.

Her reaction is instantly, I'm not getting the fuck out of it? Yes, yes, exactly, exactly. Yeah, this is the never meet your heroes of it all, Like yeah, and I love that the way that the I love that the movie takes no time at all getting to the Wayne Newton. They're not in the casino but five minutes, they haven't even made it to their room yet, and she sees Wayne Newton like it's it. You know, Wayne Newton is the best part of this movie.

I genuinely think you know, uh, he is in License to Kill a right he played, Yeah, played the villain, one of the villains in License to Kill. That was the last time we talked about him. But I don't think anybody's talked about Wayne Noon this much in a long time. No, he's not. He's not relevant anymore, which is Holy.

Ladies'll probably talk about him all the time. He's still doing it though I know he's still doing it. But like my point is, like, what's crazy is nineteen ninety seven was Wayne Newton relevant? Men? Like, yeah, we were.

We were at the Flamingo last year and on that very expensive trip and they have a Wayne Newton room at like a showroom kind of thing for him to do his show at the Flamingo. So it was interesting that he's at the Mirage in this one. But yeah, I was like, he he looks so old now, like he finally the age has caught up, because yeah, I don't know if it was plastic surgery or what was going on, but yeah, he never looked right in that crazy hair, and I was glad when she like touches his hair and stuff. It just looks so raw. And of course an Eddie is a Wayne Newton.

Oh yeah. And when Wayne, when he pulls her up onto onto the stage, I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot she's an actual singer, that she can really do this. And when she hits that many Riperton high note, I was like, oh my god, and I love how how Clark's just like, I've never heard you hit those notes before. I'm like, no, no, you never have. You've never made your wife scream like that before.

Having Yeah, yeah, that was nice those little like moments there. I was like, yeah, yep, clerk, you just can't compare to Wayne Newton. Yeah, well, I just I really like that they switched flipped the switch on this and had her pursuing somebody instead of him again. Yeah yeah, well she's kind of doing it, but kind of not. It's like she's not really sure what's going on.

And then yeah, she's batting him away, like yeah, yeah, well. I mean but she's you know, like you said, immediately sucked in when she sees him in the lot and they oh yeah, you know, not the lobby, but. Yeah, Sayne Newton looking looking like that? Oh yes, oh yeah, so well man, man, I'm telling you, he is a very specific looking individual. There's never been an individual that's looked more when.

He was young in the sixties. When I see old clips of him, I'm like that, dude, motherfucker is weird looking? Oh yeah, yeah, weird looking? Well, how or was see when we when he first got on the charts with Don Kashane, because he was like I think he was predomvescent. Yeah, yeah, I think he was.

He was early twenties or or late teens. I mean he was. He was one of those young guys. Is that what they're using in various Bueller's Day off? Yeah?

Yeah, right, right? Is the Wayne Newton version, the high you know, Frankie Valley esque version. Right yeah, because I don't even know he went through puberty at that point. Yeah. I it's not so much like falsetto.

It's just this sounds like a woman singing, you know, and there are a few other examples of that through the years and pop music. But like when I hear that song, I always have to remind myself, Oh no, this is Wayne Newton, not a woman. Yeah no, the timber of his voice, you know, that's his range. So don Kashan came out in nineteen sixty three. Oh wow, so he was he was born in nineteen forty two, so he was twenty one when that came out.

I thought he was like twelve when that's honestly, he loaded like his balls hadn't dropped when he had known that. Wow. Okay, barently has been happily married for a long time, so this whole thing of him being lothario was just a big old joke and stuff. But yeah, man, he was married married since nineteen ninety four, and before that he was married for twenty years before that. Almost my god, Wayne knew long termer.

Yeah, good for you, Wayne. Well he's had two known children, so yeah, two known children. Well, which is some twnty gals. Yeah, how many gals went back to the Midwest and you know, had a little surprise nine months late. Little Wayne's.

Yeah, Little Wayne's and man, if they're in the Midwest, have the kids named Wayne makes more sense there than it fucking Vegas. Speaking of that, I almost kind of would have and it doesn't make sense canonically, but I sort of would have liked the Christy Brinkley thing for it to have been a kid that like maybe could have been the same age, right that, Oh this is my kid, you know. For Clark, it wouldn't have made any I mean it would have been it's too convoluted to do. But when they showed the little kid, that's where my mind immediately went like, oh, he's gonna think it's his, even though they never actually touched each other practically in that movie. But my wife had a good comment.

She goes, uh, I said something like, yeah, as if Clark would have a chance, And she goes, well, she did marry Billy Joel. And I'm like, yeah, who looks like a frog? I think he looks like more to me, like a piano man. I think the thing with Chrissy Brinkley is some interesting fan service. I like what they do in Vacation.

Oh it's just so, but I can't. I just kind of hoping that would happen in this. I was like, no, No, that's that's the The Blue Boots. That's what I was remake sequel. That's the movie that actually gets the tone of this franchise right.

And this movie doesn't get the tone right. It's it's not mean spirited enough, like Christmas Vacation and European Vacation and Vacation are mean spirited movies. You know, the little Guy couldn't keep up for more than a couple of miles. If that's canly mean spirited. Yeah, it doesn't have that edge.

I mean definitely that the first one has. And you know it goes down it times like yeah, yeah that's fair. Well, the whole thing with the cat and stuff getting fried. Yeah, it's a little bit. But I think they each time.

I mean, this is what straight up PG. I don't even know if it's PG. Thirteen. They don't even drop a single F. Bomb in this movie.

No, I don't even know if they say shit. Yeah, it's it's it's very much. It's tame. It's pretty tan. It means, you know, with the dancing girls and stuff, they're fully oh.

Yeah yeah, I mean she's not even in a bikini. Memory serves. This is the this is the franchise where there have been tits at least two of the four movies. Actually, yeah, yeah, I think that might be the best vacation movie of all. Is that is that fucking sequel, prequel, prequel, whatever the funk will it is?

Just get because of that kid, I mean, Skyler Gazondove. That guy what a great name. God doesn't he look like a Skyler Gazando. Look like a gazo to me? Yeah, It's just it doesn't if you're gonna make a movie like this and you're gonna go to Vegas, which is America's playground at the time, Like again, like that's and then I think that maybe even more so than the script, it is, it is the fact of like this is the weird time of Vegas where Vegas is trying to be appealing to families, and it should have been the Griswolds are going to Vegas.

What the fuck are they doing in Vegas? Not the Griswolds are going to Vegas because it's a family place. Now, I don't know, I think maybe the Vegas of it all is the is the missed opportunity here. They didn't have to go to Vegas to have her interact with Wayne Newton. You know what, I mean like that that that that idea of that plot could have been anywhere with anyone of note that she is feeling a compunction to pursue, and then it turns out that the person is a fucking creep, Like could have been anywhere with anyone, just because it's like the trappings of Vegas I think are interesting.

I just I'm kind of at a loss for the script, not really taking advantage of it. It's Unmoss. You just want to be like, again, this is a family place for families. Come here with your kids and spend your nest egg, go to the casin the blue and yellow chicken and beet and the roles of a fucking duff. Here's my cinema sins for this episode.

Uh ohhh again, Papa Georgio gets caught, I mean he gets rated out. How does he end up keeping all those cars? Yeah, I was wondering about that. I really wish that he hadn't gotten ratted out. I do like the oh yeah he's back there kind of he always told Yeah, yeah, I kind of wish that he didn't have the whole thing with the entourage where he's like, entouragees are expensive and just had been able to keep all that money.

I thought that would have been great because that really wanted Russy to be like the ultimate winner in this movie, and like Slark has ruined everything and then Rusty's just like, oh, I got some money and he just like pulls out this big fucking wad or something. Yeah, that was what I was expecting. Actually, it doesn't matter that he's losing all the money because Papa Georgio over here is is winning. I mean, right, he's Charlie Sheen in this movie. He's winning exactly.

All these yeah, exactly cards, Like I get it, Russ. I kind of wouldn't like to have seen more of that and more of him. I mean, he's just kind of the hero of this movie for me. And yeah, it's real nice that Sid Caesar shows up, but it's just like I didn't need all that. You know, who the fuck is that for Sid Caesar.

Everybody like, yeah, look. At how long this death scene goes on. But when the when the paramedics come in and they just have that real flat delivery of like you would have given anything just to have people sit and talk with him. I was like, that's the saddest man I've ever known. Yeah, terrible, terrible delivery, but it made me laugh so hard.

I I quote the I Won the Money. My mom and I quote that to each other all the time. I don't know why, but that's made a lasting impact on my life. Sid Caesar going I Won the Money. It's just like, what the fuck is this movie doing it?

That's like we're just gone around the bend like four fucking times at this point. Mm hmm, Like you already said, Chris, it's the TSX MAC and I mean, and they put like such a fine point on it with the paramedics. It's like you're part of our family. Tonight, I was watching this movie with my girlfriend. She was like, are they gonna win the money back?

And I was like, yeah, and it's gonna be in a really lazy way too, But hey, you know what, at least thing they understood know that you can win a lot of money in Keno. At least they understood that. I'll give the movie credit because you know, Keno is really the only way that they could realistically win that much money back in one sitting. There's no other way. I do love that they're like picking numbers as if it matters, which by the way folks it.

It fucking doesn't so pick any number you wont Every number is the same goddamn ond. And then and then I do like that we because we haven't mentioned it, are what is the ostensibly the reason they go to Vegas? Because he got his bonus money because his what was it his milk, No, his cookie with. Long term food preserved. Yeah, long term food preservation.

So his cookies are like eighteen years old if his milk's like ten years old or something like that. I was like, okay, yeah, and I love how disgusted they are by his own profession that they just have to wait a second. That whole thing wasn't was that a nod in funny money? That whole thing with the fake bananas. Oh I don't know, Well, wasn't that a play though?

Yeah? But that whole stuff about like him making the fake food. I mean that almost feels like this food preservative thing. Yeah. I don't know.

I couldn't remember what his profession was, but yeah, I guess that was his profession in those earlier movies. And he didn't get that goddamn bonus from Brian door Murray. But yeah, now he finally got his bonus. Yes, yep, big bonus. The other reason was they were supposed to go to Vegas so that they could get remarried.

That's right, Yeah, yeah, by Larry. I've been to Vegas and have gotten remarried. Twice so far by Larry Hankin. Both not by Larry. Hankin, though I really wish you would have robed.

One was by the way Mark, that is the best part him in his fucking row. One was young Elvis and the other one was old Elvis. So cool. Yeah, little chapel at six nineteen Las Vegas Boulevard was the first time I got married there. Yeah, And there was a our cab driver was from Michigan, and I remember him talking about how he loved living in Vegas because, and I quote, you don't have to shovel sunshine, so.

Shorts wear shorts all year round, according to her. And then our cab driver on the way out of Vegas was the one who informed me that President Abama. This was during the ninety nine percent movement, because I remember there's a whole encampment of ninety nine percenters there and this guy was telling us all the way back from the strip to they was it Matt Logan Airport. I can't remember what that one is out there, And he was just telling us all about how President Obama has the mccaron has a treaty with the Martians, and that he teleports to Mars very often, and yeah, this whole thing. And then quid years probably like a year later, I looked up on the internet.

I said, Obama Mars teleportation. It had become such a rumor that the press Corps actually got addressed about it, and I was like, what the fuck? Yes, Mike, I was like, this is the beginning of the end. So yeah, thank god nothing bad ever happened, right, Yeah, exactly exactly what a weird timeline it would be to live in that one, right. That would be so weird.

Yeah. Actually, January third, twenty twelve, White House denies CIA teleported Obama to Mars. So that must have been our trip that we took back in November eleventh, twenty eleven. I don't know why they were denying it. We all know it's the truth.

Yeah, Like, well, why we're gonna not answer that question because I. Know, I know, you know, I'm surprised that they didn't just say, Yo, Mama, is there anything more Las Vegas than Sigfried and Roy. In the late nineties, we didn't talk about the Sigfreed and Roy of at all. We mentioned it, but Sigfreed and Roy what what like a specific Vegas thing? Yeah, and like such an iconic Vegas thing that kind of then got, uh, what's the term ruined?

Yeah? What do you call what happened with Sigfreed and Roy other than like you had tigers on stage with you and at some point something bad could happen. Yeah, only only you know what they say. You don't get attacked by tigers on stage if you're not on stage with tigers for a living. That's true.

Yeah. You mess with the bully, you get the horns, that's right. Yeah. John Hughes taught us that, and I believe he wrote the first script first, the first vacation film he did. Yes, he's still getting credited for characters created by John Hughes.

Huh still oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I love the Sigfried and Roy of at all. That's I think that's what puts it over the top for me. For like the nineties, the late nineties of it all is like we're gonna show all these matt because every every casino in the nineties had a fucking magic show, because magic shows were the family show. And when we went to Las Vegas when in the late nineties early two thousands, we went and saw a magic show as well, we went saw Lance Burton, of all people, the guy who jumped off, the guy who evaded a roller coaster at one point. Really yeah, he was like tied to a roller coaster that was like, we're the tracks of a roller coaster that was coming down the tracks and he jumped out of the way at the last second.

He was you know, changed wow manicals and stuff. So, yeah, didn't the amazing Jonathan just pass away? Was that right? I think? So?

Oh no, yeah, speaking of Vegas. Yes, actually, just as in three years ago, February twenty second, twenty twenty two, So just as. Just as in yeah, just as in he's well, he's there's not much left. Yeah, It's like him and Doug Trumbull were hanging out and they just decided, you know, twenty twenty two is our year. We're done.

Yeah, that's right, Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I just donated. It must have got faxt. The magician, the magicians of it all is just again one of those like further Vegas isms of the time, and I I just yeah, you you mentioned it before. I loved that.

There's essentially a whole like a little mini Sigfried and Roy show just kind of jammed into this movie because. Again, had tiger attack happen, because I think we were in Vegas shortly thereafter. Are you saying as once? Yeah, it was the one dime. It was in the early ke October two thousand and three.

Okay, so yeah, we were there the next year for. Our mounting the true story of the sig Freedom. Still there was still a kind of cloud over the city because of that. Yeah, there's a great thing. There's a great People magazine cover with Roy on it saying Tiger terror.

Why did this six hundred pound tiger turn on Vegas? Star Roy Horn the inside the horrific attack? Why did the tiger attack the guy who was his essentially trainer. Yeah, I don't know. I just think the thing with Sick is very is very sad.

But Creed and Roy also that weird thing of like we're where we just live together, we're not gay. It's like that's that weird, just like the Vegas of it all, like the Liberati, right, like Liberaci wasn't gay, like Liberi, the you know Liberaci on ice and the amazing alc Liberacci. How can Liberacci be gay? All these women love him? What are you talking about?

That's right, that's right talking about that's right. That bread pudding is extra running tonight. That's what I'm I think. Hell is that buffet in Vegas vacation with the with the rolls and the extra the extra running bread pudding is something I didn't know was so off putting. But man, him eating met soupy ass bread pudding is just Randy Quaid is a national treasure.

He I know you guys didn't vibe with him in this movie, but hell, it's such a specific performance and he nails it every time. Like his inclusion maybe isn't there, It isn't your isn't your cup of tea? But you have to give the guy credit that he commits to this goddamn role every time, and he really commits to it, and some. Of those one liners actually really work. I mean I was laughing despite myself.

I mean the whole thing of like you know, the thing about the coffee anything. Yeah, coffee, you put on ice cream mashed potatoes. He even eat it out of the can for a quick pick me up. Yeah, Or when he's like guys insane, or when he's like, come on, they're giving away free sandwiches at the blood bank. I'm like, this is good, Like those lines are good.

It's just like that character didn't necessarily need to be in the movie. Oh No, he was there too much. That was my complaint. Yeah, showing up, Yeah, just like he was in the first Vacation. You know, he's show up, they show up at his place, they leave, they're done.

You know, I didn't need him throughout this whole thing. He was in here more than he was in Christmas Vacation. I think, Yeah, Yeah, they show up pretty cool. They show up pretty late in that movie. They show up pretty late.

They're they're pretty early on in this film. When he just shows up, it's a bust. It's like, oh my god, Jesus. The first time he's gambling he shows up. I'm like, yeah, I know that.

I mean, I get why he's there because I never remember her character's name, Ellen Ellen. Ellen calls and says that they're there, but that doesn't come out until later, So I'm like, how the fuck did he find him in a casino filled with ten thousand people? Yeah, come on, guys, well there's only one guy that looks like Chevy Chase. That's true. We'll be at this table gambling with Wallace Sean if you want to find him Eddie.

Or what the fuck? Or the Snapple Lady, which I was so happy to see the Snapple Ladies show up as that earlier blackjack dealer. Do you guys have a name memory of what I'm talking about? Okay, thank you, thank you. I was like, yeah, she looks familiar.

You were talking about. I thought you're talking about. Sweeney was great, Yeah, and I guess I was supposed to be eating mcclerk. Of course. She was like, no, since John John what's his name, Hughes, Hughes has not evolved in this, I'm not going to do it because it was basically her character from Plane Streams and Audibobiles.

Yeah, yeah, I thought she. Would have been better. Lady is a deep cup. Yeah, I think she would have been better as that eating McClure. But you know, Julie Sweeney's kind of the knockoff eating McLure.

Yeah, yeah, well eating McClure never did a cinematic masterpiece like It's Pat. Yeah, put that right out there. Somebody's got It's Pat on their resume other than Quentin Tarantino, and that's Julia Sweeney. You know that the world has come around on Pat, Mike and now You're really A documentary came out called We Are Pat. Earlier this year, Jesus Christ, you know, and it's.

All about comedy and trans and non binary identity, which is why someone who is both trans and non binary didn't watch it because I don't care. So there you go. I was watching Vegas Vacation instead, so fuck me. Then you want to talk about bad documentaries. The guy that directed this, so he's only got like five credits to his name, Steven Pessler.

So after Vegas Vacation, before this, he had directed a short in nineteen ninety one. I don't know how he manages to parlay that into Vegas Vacation in ninety seven. After that, he makes a movie with Jerry Stiller and Janine Grafflow, which I remember getting so much swag for that movie and just they were so desperate to get it promoted any place that they were sending me shit as a zine ster back in two thousand and then after that, he does Paul Williams Still Alive in twenty eleven, Paul William's Still Alive. I really wanted it to be a documentary about Paul Williams, but it's basically documentary about Stephen Kessler. Right, it's so fucking weird.

Thank god that you brought this up, because I was going to that is it is one of the worst documentaries I've ever seen. Agreed. Agreed, yes, ironically. Like it is a worthless documentary because I don't care about you, Stephen Kessler. Why what I You're not Paul Williams.

Yeah, and like the whole thing of like I thought Paul Williams is dead, I was like, well, guess what. You can look it up on the fucking interrat. I'm glad that twenty eleven Google didn't exist. Yes, it is Paul williamslive dot com. Right, yes, exactly, Yeah, I check it every day.

I just like the Instagram now that I follow that's called is he dead yet? Yeah? No, I don't think I could follow that because it would just be a disappointment. I know, I know, but well, one of these days I was curious. I'm like, I don't know who this person is, which doesn't mean a lot.

I mean, he could have had a credit list that was, oh, you know, a one hundred titles long. But that was the thing that worried me at the beginning of this because when they're and it supposedly it's the same house as the Christmas Vacation house. That's what's according to the trivia, I don't know, because it looked like bright day. I mean, I'm like, oh, this is so flat and bright. This is going to look like a TV movie the whole fucking time.

The interior. I don't know if the interior set was designed the same or not. I think because Christmas Vacation seems to be mostly night scenes with some like atmosphere in room. It's a very fuzzy movie Christmas Vacation. Yeah, And I was like, oh this, I'm surprised that it's the same place because I don't get that vibe from it at all.

This looks like just flat white, bright, brightly lit TV lighting, and so that's why the all of the location stuff and everything surprised me. But I thought, oh no, this is gonna look like shit. The whole time. They're gonna have nothing but awful sets. And you know, I'm sure the hotel rooms are set.

Who knows, maybe they weren't. Maybe they shot in the hotels. Who I don't know. They look like says to me, Yeah, I mean they look like seth. But those views of the Vegas Strip were a little too nice for a hotel room that day would be staying.

Yeah. Yeah. But so much of it was location shooting that I was like, Oh, okay, okay, I'm buying into the facade of this movie. Now. Then you know that's fine.

I can always believe they shot there. I can tell you all about Stephen Kestler because I went to Custlercontent dot com. Stephen Kestler is an Academy Award and Director's Guild of America nominated director, writer, and producer of film, TV commercials, and branded entertainment films. Paul Williams Still Live Vegas Vacation. The independent ads and content include Apple McDonald's, Conde Nasts, Napple, There We Go, HBO, General Motors, Priorities, USA, Taco Bell, Did I alant to say?

Coco Bell? Okay? And The New York Mets. Stephen is the author of chayat Slash Day the first twenty years, and a co founder of the non partisan nonprofit The Comedy Resistance, which encourages millennial activism. It like that sounds like a group that I wouldn't want to be in a stuck in a room with or an elevator or anywhere near Lord, millennial activism.

Boy, have you met millennials? I have? I am one, and I don't want to be near him. Fucking good Lord, what a weird person to give this movie to. Yeah, what what a string?

I want to look at the connection is there? Maybe he was deep into the Vegas. High by the Las Vegas travel board. We got this kid here, he can do it. Yeah, he's great.

I like speaking of real sets. I like that they shot at Wayne Newton's real house. Yes, yes, Shenandoah for fun and festivity. That's so good. I just yeah, man, this this movie had.

I think this movie has more potential and as hot some really high highs, but the lack of consistency, it's you know, like, I don't know if this is my favorite of the original four vacations, but it's the one I've seen the most, even now with Christmas vacation being a thing that I watch every year. I've seen this movie a lot that I could quote whole scenes verbatim like that's I don't and again, like I chalk it up to the DiveX of it all. I'm pretty sure this movie was onto TIVX when I was growing up. I'm sure it had to have been, and I know I watched it a lot growing up. But it's weird because looking back on it now, like they're the parts of this movie that's worked then work now, but the parts of the movie that I didn't realize didn't work then really don't work.

And it is a real bummer because there were the highs of this movie are really high, like that the the the things that work really work. In my lie, I completely agree. I mean, there were so many times where I was laughing and I'm like what am I doing laughing at this movie? Because there were so many times where I'm groaning and then I'm just like, how are they doing this? How is it so good in some parts and so awful in other parts?

As completely uneven because I mean, yeah, it was just so strange. There was a weird experience this movie. Here's my qualifier for any of these films. Would I watch it again? And I would watch this one again?

Like my daughter was like, hey, I didn't get to watch Vegas Vacation with you? Wow. Well I don't can't imagine her saying that. But let's take a wager than that ever had. Let's watch it.

Hey Dad, I watch it. Yeah, let's watch it. I mean she she likes the first one, and we watch generally watch Christmas Vacation. If it rolls, it's usually playing somewhere and it will probably start showing up pretty today. Yeah, on you know, as a suggestion on our streaming services are on our cable and we'll definitely watch that one.

So if that popped up, and she'd like, oh, is there another one we haven't seen, father, Yes, Vegas Vacation you didn't watch with me? Father, watch some vacation. Other this PG ve Vacation movie. I can handle that. Let's go.

Let's go ahead, kid, We'll watch it. Yes, well, daughter, I would watch this one again. Isn't that kind of though, Like the last thing legacy of the vacation movies is, I think all of them are kind of imminently rewatchable. I wouldn't want you European Vacation again? Really really no, I still hate that one.

Interesting. I'm so kind of glad in a way that you guys enjoyed this movie more than that one, because I think, in terms of the ones I've seen the second most, it's probably European Vacation with and like say, close tie with Christmas at this. Point, that was the one I saw the most because I saw it one time before we started the show outside one vacation and that was Vegas, So. That's right, yeah European. I'm sorry, and that was European and I am Yeah.

Now I'm a fucking expert on vacation movies. We I mean, we have to be at this point. Yeah, I can go on like one of those nerds that know everything shows and just quote all the trivia. So I couldn't find any information about it because National Lampoons doesn't exist much longer after this, But I was always curious, like was there another movie that was gonna like was there another one of these? Like there was there an opportunity for them to go and you know Griswolds take Tokyo or something like that, like we Wow, they couldn't find anything there's got to have been somebody kicking I mean, if someone was kicking Fletch the sequel around for fucking twenty years, you know that people were kicking around a fifth Vacation film after this movie, you know, right.

But this does have National Lampoon in the title. It doesn't. No, No, it sure doesn't. But it's technically still being made when National Lampoons is a thing. And they were making movies at this point.

I mean this like, is this Prong Game Wilder? Yeah, like they were making I'm trying to remember who I had just interviewed recently who was talking about how they they were making a movie for National Lampoon, and National Lampoon came in afterwards and they oh god, they like added Ludicris to it and made him they had him do a voice over. And I was just like, that sounds terrible, and the guy was like, yeah, it was awful. He was like, I was kind of proud of this movie, and then National Lampoon ruined their own film by adding ludicrous to this movie. I was like, okay, all right, great, Yeah, so they were still doing stuff, and I know Chevy Chase had mentioned wanting to do was it Swiss family Griswold where they're trapped on an island, like shipwrecked on an island, and didn't you see that being good?

Well, did you see Christmas Vacation two? No, that's Christmas Vacation two. Literally, that is Christmas Vacation two. It is Gilligan's Island with really with Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn, oh fucking fred Ward. And I kid you not, because you know, this was a thing that the world needed.

I believe the chick who played Audi in the original Vegas Vacation, Yeah, comes back Dana Bay Original Vacation. Okay, yeah, yeah, I think I remember looking that up when we were talking about that. Because I knew she came back for one of them, and I was thinking it was this one, but you told me it was the cousin Eddie spinoff. And Eric Idol is even in it as well, reprising his role as the coming back. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that movie's bad. By the way, I actually owned that film on DVD, and I owned that film on DVD probably from like two thousand and three. I believe my mom bought it for me whenever it came out. Surprise, you don't own that on Divis. Oh god, it was too late.

Devx was only around for like a year, not even a year, it was like six months. The most obsolescence ever. This is a this is a disc made to be thrown in the trash. Yeah, its fucking insanity. I can you imagine if that technology existed now people be like, this is the most wasteful thing ever, Like styrofoam containers at McDonald's.

How about discs being thrown in the trash and intentionally? My god, I mean that was AOL's full business model for a long time, wasn't it. Where it's like, yeah, here, we're gonna send you disc We're gonna send you CDs. I mean I remember people doing art projects with their CDs, that's right. Yeah, yeah, man, the nineties were a wild time.

This movie. I love that this movie is a part of a time capsule of a very specific time in Las Vegas' culture that and you know, to the idea of like its movie doesn't have any edge, Like there aren't a lot of movies that show this version of Vegas, like leaving Las Vegas, right, Like that's also in the nineties, but that's like not the fun Vegas. I'm not saying that this is fun per se, but this is like the I this is the way Vegas probably views itself in the nineties, ideally, right, like an idealized version, like there's a place that families could come and lose all their money and win it all back and go home happy. Like I mean, part of that equation probably is true. Well, this is the shoe getting gang raped in a hotelism has part of that a little bit.

I laughed so hard at that. I laughed so hard at Xander Berkeley as the cab driver and he makes some horrible remark to her, and I laughed out loud in the movie theater, and I felt so guilty for it, but I thought that was great. Mark Bailey Wake Up Heavy says this film is a gas Oh. Oh my god, one of them. I've never I've only seen that movie once, which is weird because of.

A movie, and it's like a weird remake of Leaving Las Vegas, right, I mean, it's basically the same movie. I think, not in Leaving Las Vegas Honeymoon in Vegas. Oh, I didn't realize. That's just kidding. I don't think that's true.

Did you read this on IMDb. Oh yeah, there's a fan theory out there, there's a whole I made a whole video about it. Yes, yes, the fan theory surrounding leaving Las Vegas. Yeah yeah, yeah, well yeah, if you look real careful, you the uh the cage character. Yeah.

No, I'm so glad that we decided to do this show together. I know that we're one episode removed. I am, I am. You fucking might not be, and that's your problem, not mine. I'm never gonna say no to getting to watch movies with with with my friends, and I'm especially not gonna say no to getting to watch a movie that I never thought I would get to talk about on an episode of anything, Like, what reason would any of us have had to talk about half or more than half of these in any capacity?

None? Like I asked the same question to think, maybe with a different tone, Why why would we get together and talk about funny Money? Why on earth would anybody do that? Because you know what they say, say, someone has to at some point, and why not us? Yeah, and every movie is somebody's favorite, So somebody loves Funny Money with all of their whole heart.

Oh yeah, absolutely, And those are the people that leave angry review use for this show. For our show, it's like, you guys don't really like chevy Chase. You don't understand, right, you don't understand his ouvra and I and I. If all we ever get are negative reviews, I would totally understand it. Because people coming to these to because they like chevy Chase and he can do no wrong, are going to be sorely disappointed.

Oh yeah. We ran into that with ranking on on Bass, Like, you know, we had people that were like, hey, you guys don't really like this. It's like, yeah, I mean that's a valid criticism if you didn't listen to our show, like. Pretty much everything we've done, I mean, cole Chak, we had people, why are you talking about the show if you don't like it? Colombo, We get feedback on that, so it's just like, okay.

Well it's a percent of a percent, you know, that's okay. Like they don't represent the grand populace of people that listen to this show. So hey, you know, I think it should be obvious we actually like chevy Chase. One of one of us on this show, one of our favorite movies is a chevy Chase movie that person being me with Fletch Like you think I dislike Chevy Chase, He's in my one of my favorite movie. I'm sorry, like, but we can't sit here and sit idly by and watch shitty movies and not comment on it.

Come on, funny funny Money, I think for me is you know, and again unless the last laugh somehow is worse. Funny Money is one of the worst things I've ever watched, and without a doubt, the worst thing we watched on this ship period. Yeah, guys, we got to wrap up because I can go pee so mad, I can taste it. So I wish I was the one tasting prizingly good for a movie coming this late in our show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that matter for watching this one.

Yeah, it was another surprise for me, like, oh, okay, this ain't all that bad. I'm I'm I'm that that makes me happy. That actually makes me happy. No, I didn't expect you guys to like it, but I'm glad you didn't hate it. So so that's right.

On the next and final episode of the Chasing Chevy Chase podcast, we're going to cover the last lap, which features everyone's favorite pairing of Richard Dreyfus and Chevy Chase. Yikes, what a combo? Until then, where can people find you in the things that you work on? Mike White? Everything I do is available at Wirdingwaymedia dot com, which includes well, this show so obviously, and then a show that Chris and I do with our friend Richard HadAM is not available at Wirdingway dot com, but available on our patreons.

That's patreon dot com slash Culturecast and patrion dot com slash Projection booth. And that is Branking on Bond, where every month we talk about James Bond movies and yeah, if we allowed comments on those, that would probably be something like, White, are you talking about James Bond when you hate them so much? What about you? Mark Ragley? My shows, including this one and from the files of Police Squad, Let's not forget that, Jim Cambridgemachhan and wickup Heavier all on Wordingwaymedia dot com.

How about you, Chris Stashu. Yeah, you guys said it. Weirdywaymedia dot com is where you can find all the things that I work on, including this show and the Culture Cast, which I do by myself sometimes and with other people. Sometimes and I talk about movies that I probably, according to people who watch and listen to these things fucking hate. So yeah, yeah, that's where you can go to find the things that I work on, like rate and review the show wherever you get it, which is more than likely on iTunes or Spotify, which seems to be the overwhelming place to find things of the audio nature.

And yeah, come back on the on the next episode for the final episode of the Chasing Jevy job. Yeah, Mark's ready, He's been done. Mark's been done for a year. I've been phoning it in for a year. He's been funny.

Another reason I don't mind the negative reviews because they're taking my energy off of this. He's he's a what's the term. He's he's pulling a Chevy chase. He's doing a little better textual dance here. And he's been phoning it in for a while, which is, you know, to say the least, a little apropos given who we've been talking about.

Literally, he literally phoned in his voiceover for O Heavenly Dog. Yeah, somehow not phoning it in here shocking, but yeah, So join us on the next episode where we'll see if if Chevy Chase ends on a high note, or if we leave on the sour taste in them. I'm not Y'm not so expecting much out of this. I'm not, but who knows. I've been pleasantly surprised with this nothing but trouble and a couple other ones like oh I didn't hate it, thank Christ and beat me along cat and yeah.

We'll catch you on the on the next episode. Thank