One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the season is about to be released on Blu-ray/DVD, and if you live in or around Burbank, California, you can meet members of the cast and crew of Silent Night at Dark Delicacies on December 4th to celebrate the mayhem.
A very loose remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night, the new film’s stellar cast includes Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Easy A), Jaime King (Sin City, My Bloody Valentine 3D), Donal Logue (Shark Night 3D, Blade), Lisa Marie (Sleepy Hollow), Brendan Fehr (Final Destination, X-Men First Class) and Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).
McDowell and King star as a small-town sheriff and deputy on the hunt for a murderous Santa Claus terrorizing their community on Christmas Eve. But with the streets full of Santas for the annual Christmas parade, the killer is hiding in plain sight.
A very loose remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night, the new film’s stellar cast includes Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Easy A), Jaime King (Sin City, My Bloody Valentine 3D), Donal Logue (Shark Night 3D, Blade), Lisa Marie (Sleepy Hollow), Brendan Fehr (Final Destination, X-Men First Class) and Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).
McDowell and King star as a small-town sheriff and deputy on the hunt for a murderous Santa Claus terrorizing their community on Christmas Eve. But with the streets full of Santas for the annual Christmas parade, the killer is hiding in plain sight.
- 12/2/2012
- by Doctor Gash
- DreadCentral.com
Silent Night‘s limited theatrical release starts today and the movie will be released to Blu-ray/DVD next week. If you’re interested in meeting some of the cast and crew, including director Steven C. Miller, there will be a signing event taking place at Dark Delicacies next week:
What: On Tuesday evening December 4th, fans of a certain homicidal holiday figure can rejoice when cast and crew of Silent Night will be at Burbank’s legendary Dark Delicacies bookstore to sign Blu-rays and DVDs of the remake of the 80s cult horror classic.
When: Tuesday, December 4th, 7:00pm
Where: Dark Delicacies Bookstore
3512 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 556-6660
Who: Director Steven C. Miller;
Co-star Cortney Palm;
Director of Photography Joseph White;
Composer Kevin Riepl;
Editor Seth Flaum
Details: Santa Claus is coming to town. Heaven help the naughty! On December 4th, Anchor Bay Films unwraps Silent Night on Blu-ray™/DVD combo and DVD.
What: On Tuesday evening December 4th, fans of a certain homicidal holiday figure can rejoice when cast and crew of Silent Night will be at Burbank’s legendary Dark Delicacies bookstore to sign Blu-rays and DVDs of the remake of the 80s cult horror classic.
When: Tuesday, December 4th, 7:00pm
Where: Dark Delicacies Bookstore
3512 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 556-6660
Who: Director Steven C. Miller;
Co-star Cortney Palm;
Director of Photography Joseph White;
Composer Kevin Riepl;
Editor Seth Flaum
Details: Santa Claus is coming to town. Heaven help the naughty! On December 4th, Anchor Bay Films unwraps Silent Night on Blu-ray™/DVD combo and DVD.
- 11/30/2012
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Film starring Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Brittany Robertson and Chi McBride to open in New York City and Los Angeles on August 26th
New York . June 15, 2011 . Entertainment One has acquired North American rights to
The Family Tree, a hilarious, touching and offbeat comedy which explores the frailties and complexities of the contemporary American family, starring Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Max Thieriot, Brittany Robertson and Chi McBride. The acquisition was negotiated by Sejin Park, VP of Worldwide Acquisitions for Entertainment One, and producers Allan Jones and J. Todd Harris. Entertainment One will open the film August 26th with a platform theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles prior to distribution on home video, VOD, digital and TV.
Entertainment One.s U.S. President Michael E. Rosenberg commented, .It is truly a pleasure to be releasing an independent feature like The Family Tree. With its smart script and incredible ensemble cast,...
New York . June 15, 2011 . Entertainment One has acquired North American rights to
The Family Tree, a hilarious, touching and offbeat comedy which explores the frailties and complexities of the contemporary American family, starring Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Max Thieriot, Brittany Robertson and Chi McBride. The acquisition was negotiated by Sejin Park, VP of Worldwide Acquisitions for Entertainment One, and producers Allan Jones and J. Todd Harris. Entertainment One will open the film August 26th with a platform theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles prior to distribution on home video, VOD, digital and TV.
Entertainment One.s U.S. President Michael E. Rosenberg commented, .It is truly a pleasure to be releasing an independent feature like The Family Tree. With its smart script and incredible ensemble cast,...
- 6/15/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Opens
April 9
In "The Whole Ten Yards", a sequel to 2000's broad, crowd-pleasing farce "The Whole Nine Yards", a new director fails to maintain a firm hand on the tiller, so things spin swiftly out of control with uneven acting and misfired physical gags. A solid returning cast -- Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and Natasha Henstridge -- and good will developed in the previous hit-man comedy should guarantee a solid opening. But laughs are in much too short supply here to sustain any major boxoffice run. Ancillary markets look more promising.
Give the new writer and director team of George Gallo and Howard Deutch credit, though, for making a genuine sequel and not, as most sequels turn out, a glorified remake. The characters have all moved on to new abodes and spouses, and everyone seems determined to make his or her new life work, while still longing for aspects of the old.
Retired hit man Jimmy Tudeski (Willis) has settled into his Mexican hideaway with a newfound interest in cooking, cleaning and decorating. Meanwhile, his bride, Jill (Peet), wants to take over his old career -- that of a hired assassin -- only she is no damn good, invariably killing her target by accident rather than the old-fashioned way of actually shooting a victim.
Jimmy's one-time neighbor Oz Oseransky (Perry) has moved his dental practice from Montreal to Los Angeles and taken Jimmy's ex, Cynthia (Henstridge), as his wife. Then newly paroled Hungarian mob boss Lazlo Gogolak comes gunning for Jimmy, whom he blames for the death of his favorite son, Yanni. Kevin Pollak played Yanni in the original film. In the new film, the father is played by ... Kevin Pollak in Mr. Magoo glasses and prosthetic jowls but with the same nutty accent that mixes up Js with Ys and Vs with Ws.
Gallo's overly mechanical plot has the Gogolak gang kidnap Cynthia -- rather easily, you can't help noticing -- so a panicky Oz will scamper to his hit-man pal in Mexico, thus leading the gang to their quarry. Only Jimmy -- again you can't help noticing -- is well prepared for the assassination attempt and easily escapes with Oz, whom Jimmy intends to kill at his first opportunity, and Jill, with whom he is going through a rough marital patch because of the lack of an offspring and a bit of erectile dysfunction.
Everyone high-tails it back to L.A. for more double crosses, another kidnapping and even more pratfalls. The tiredness of Gallo's script, recycled as it is from old movies, is equaled by the crudeness and, increasingly, desperation of the physical humor. It is a rare scene in which Perry does not fall down or run into something inanimate. Willis, now in touch with his softer side, is prone to fits of sobbing at inopportune moments. Pollak has a running gag where he continually hits and berates one of his sons (Frank Collison), which grows increasingly unfunny with each slap. The gang itself handles firearms so poorly that there is never any chance a protagonist will actually get hit by a bullet.
One of the film's more awkward scenes has Willis and Perry getting drunk, with Willis' character becoming increasingly maudlin and teary-eyed with each shot. The scene is not only not funny but undermines a character who, for the story and gags to work, must be several steps ahead of his enemies. Then, too, the film's final twist -- which you can't help noticing a mile away -- renders the scene nonsensical.
Deutch and Gallo have retooled the original characters in ways that often ill-fit their actors. Rather than laughs stemming from Willis' stoic, imperturbable demeanor, they now must come from over-the-top emoting. Perry's character in turn has gone from physical bumbler to out-of-control maniac. Peet, so attracted by sheer toughness, and Henstridge, the cucumber-cool operative, have actually become the more interesting characters, yet the script explores the women's lives in only a cursory manner.
Tech credits are standard.
THE WHOLE TEN YARDS
Warner Bros.
Franchise Pictures presents a Cheyenne Enterprises production in association with Zweite Academy Film
Credits:
Director: Howard Deutch
Screenwriter: George Gallo
Based on characters created by: Mitchell Kapner
Producers: Elie Samaha, Arnold Rifkin, David Willis, Allan Kaufman
Executive producers: Andrew Stevens, Tracee Stanley, David Bergstein, Oliver Hengst
Director of photography: Neil Roach
Production designer: Virginia Randolph-Weaver
Music: John Debney
Costume designer: Rudy Dillon
Editor: Seth Flaum. Cast: Jimmy Tudeski: Bruce Willis
Oz Oseransky: Matthew Perry
Jill: Amanda Peet
Cynthia: Natasha Henstridge
Lazlo: Kevin Pollak
Strabo: Frank Collison
Zevo: Johnny Messner
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
April 9
In "The Whole Ten Yards", a sequel to 2000's broad, crowd-pleasing farce "The Whole Nine Yards", a new director fails to maintain a firm hand on the tiller, so things spin swiftly out of control with uneven acting and misfired physical gags. A solid returning cast -- Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and Natasha Henstridge -- and good will developed in the previous hit-man comedy should guarantee a solid opening. But laughs are in much too short supply here to sustain any major boxoffice run. Ancillary markets look more promising.
Give the new writer and director team of George Gallo and Howard Deutch credit, though, for making a genuine sequel and not, as most sequels turn out, a glorified remake. The characters have all moved on to new abodes and spouses, and everyone seems determined to make his or her new life work, while still longing for aspects of the old.
Retired hit man Jimmy Tudeski (Willis) has settled into his Mexican hideaway with a newfound interest in cooking, cleaning and decorating. Meanwhile, his bride, Jill (Peet), wants to take over his old career -- that of a hired assassin -- only she is no damn good, invariably killing her target by accident rather than the old-fashioned way of actually shooting a victim.
Jimmy's one-time neighbor Oz Oseransky (Perry) has moved his dental practice from Montreal to Los Angeles and taken Jimmy's ex, Cynthia (Henstridge), as his wife. Then newly paroled Hungarian mob boss Lazlo Gogolak comes gunning for Jimmy, whom he blames for the death of his favorite son, Yanni. Kevin Pollak played Yanni in the original film. In the new film, the father is played by ... Kevin Pollak in Mr. Magoo glasses and prosthetic jowls but with the same nutty accent that mixes up Js with Ys and Vs with Ws.
Gallo's overly mechanical plot has the Gogolak gang kidnap Cynthia -- rather easily, you can't help noticing -- so a panicky Oz will scamper to his hit-man pal in Mexico, thus leading the gang to their quarry. Only Jimmy -- again you can't help noticing -- is well prepared for the assassination attempt and easily escapes with Oz, whom Jimmy intends to kill at his first opportunity, and Jill, with whom he is going through a rough marital patch because of the lack of an offspring and a bit of erectile dysfunction.
Everyone high-tails it back to L.A. for more double crosses, another kidnapping and even more pratfalls. The tiredness of Gallo's script, recycled as it is from old movies, is equaled by the crudeness and, increasingly, desperation of the physical humor. It is a rare scene in which Perry does not fall down or run into something inanimate. Willis, now in touch with his softer side, is prone to fits of sobbing at inopportune moments. Pollak has a running gag where he continually hits and berates one of his sons (Frank Collison), which grows increasingly unfunny with each slap. The gang itself handles firearms so poorly that there is never any chance a protagonist will actually get hit by a bullet.
One of the film's more awkward scenes has Willis and Perry getting drunk, with Willis' character becoming increasingly maudlin and teary-eyed with each shot. The scene is not only not funny but undermines a character who, for the story and gags to work, must be several steps ahead of his enemies. Then, too, the film's final twist -- which you can't help noticing a mile away -- renders the scene nonsensical.
Deutch and Gallo have retooled the original characters in ways that often ill-fit their actors. Rather than laughs stemming from Willis' stoic, imperturbable demeanor, they now must come from over-the-top emoting. Perry's character in turn has gone from physical bumbler to out-of-control maniac. Peet, so attracted by sheer toughness, and Henstridge, the cucumber-cool operative, have actually become the more interesting characters, yet the script explores the women's lives in only a cursory manner.
Tech credits are standard.
THE WHOLE TEN YARDS
Warner Bros.
Franchise Pictures presents a Cheyenne Enterprises production in association with Zweite Academy Film
Credits:
Director: Howard Deutch
Screenwriter: George Gallo
Based on characters created by: Mitchell Kapner
Producers: Elie Samaha, Arnold Rifkin, David Willis, Allan Kaufman
Executive producers: Andrew Stevens, Tracee Stanley, David Bergstein, Oliver Hengst
Director of photography: Neil Roach
Production designer: Virginia Randolph-Weaver
Music: John Debney
Costume designer: Rudy Dillon
Editor: Seth Flaum. Cast: Jimmy Tudeski: Bruce Willis
Oz Oseransky: Matthew Perry
Jill: Amanda Peet
Cynthia: Natasha Henstridge
Lazlo: Kevin Pollak
Strabo: Frank Collison
Zevo: Johnny Messner
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
Talk about bad timing. In the midst of one of the more contentious labor strikes in the entertainment industry, here comes Warner Bros.' "The Replacements", a film glorifying scabs.
Based loosely on the National Football League players strike a dozen years ago, in which replacement players filled in for the pros while labor negotiations dragged on, "The Replacements" makes no effort at evenhandedness: Professional players are portrayed as too pampered and overpaid to play football with healthy abandon. What they lack is heart, the kind that their replacements -- ordinary, blue-collar jocks -- possess in ample measure.
Despite its unabashedly pro-management stance, the film's scruffy amiability and comic football action may win more than a few fans. Gene Hackman is always good value and a cast of implausibly wacky supporting characters turn the fictional Washington Sentinels into a football team that should win something -- if not the Super Bowl than perhaps the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.
Vince McKewin's screenplay is essentially a hand-me-down from such sports movies as "Major League" and "The Bad New Bears", in which an unlikely group of athletes comes together and after an initial display of comic ineptitude, win in spite of themselves.
The Sentinels, four games away from a playoff berth, go on strike late in the season. The team's folksy owner (Jack Warden) recruits McGinty (Hackman), the coach he once fired, to put together a team. Instantly, McGinty has a list of players he wants that runs the gamut from bodyguards to a guy in prison.
For quarterback, he selects Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), who established a reputation for wilting under pressure in college. Shane somehow clicks with this new coach, to say nothing of head cheerleader Anabelle Farrell (Brooke Langton), and leads the Sentinels to the verge of victory despite the harassment of union players.
Acting standouts include Hackman, of course; Rhys Ifans as the chain-smoking soccer-style field goal kicker; and Langton, who despite a skimpily written role manages to be smart, funny and sexy. Reeves, though, struggles with an indifferently written character. He never quite gets a handle on what makes the guy tick on and off the field.
The Sentinel's replacement roster is jammed with funny ideas for characters that McKewin fails to develop: a Japanese sumo wrestler (Ace Yonamine), an overeager LAPD officer (Jon Favreau) and two bookends of beefcake (Michael "Bear" Taliferro and Faizon Love) who look like relatives of Sherman Klump who have drifted across the multiplex from where "The Nutty Professor II" is playing.
Director Howard Deutch keeps things moving along fast enough so one doesn't puzzle too long over inconsistencies, unlikely football plays or the need for repeated shots of the exotic dancers who have replaced the Sentinel cheerleaders.
With such behind-the-camera pros as cinematographer Tak Fujimoto, production designer Dan Bishop and editors Bud Smith and Seth Flaum, the film is a smooth and polished product. Would it be churlish to point out that these guys along with the fine actors are all union members?
THE REPLACEMENTS
Warner Bros.
in association with Bel-Air Entertainment
a Dylan Sellers production
Producer: Dylan Sellers
Director: Howard Deutch
Writer: Vince McKewin
Executive producers: Steven Reuther,
Jeffrey Chernov, Erwin Stoff
Director of photography: Tak Fujimoto
Production designer: Dan Bishop
Music: John Debney
Costume designer: Jill Ohanneson
Editors: Bud Smith, Seth Flaum
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shane Falco: Keanu Reeves
Jimmy McGinty: Gene Hackman
Annabelle Farrell: Brooke Langton
Clifford Franklin: Orlando Jones
Dainel Bateman: Jon Favreau
Nigel Gruff: Rhys Ifans
Jamal Jackson: Faizon Love
Andre Jackson: Michael "Bear" Taliferro
Running time - 109 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Based loosely on the National Football League players strike a dozen years ago, in which replacement players filled in for the pros while labor negotiations dragged on, "The Replacements" makes no effort at evenhandedness: Professional players are portrayed as too pampered and overpaid to play football with healthy abandon. What they lack is heart, the kind that their replacements -- ordinary, blue-collar jocks -- possess in ample measure.
Despite its unabashedly pro-management stance, the film's scruffy amiability and comic football action may win more than a few fans. Gene Hackman is always good value and a cast of implausibly wacky supporting characters turn the fictional Washington Sentinels into a football team that should win something -- if not the Super Bowl than perhaps the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.
Vince McKewin's screenplay is essentially a hand-me-down from such sports movies as "Major League" and "The Bad New Bears", in which an unlikely group of athletes comes together and after an initial display of comic ineptitude, win in spite of themselves.
The Sentinels, four games away from a playoff berth, go on strike late in the season. The team's folksy owner (Jack Warden) recruits McGinty (Hackman), the coach he once fired, to put together a team. Instantly, McGinty has a list of players he wants that runs the gamut from bodyguards to a guy in prison.
For quarterback, he selects Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), who established a reputation for wilting under pressure in college. Shane somehow clicks with this new coach, to say nothing of head cheerleader Anabelle Farrell (Brooke Langton), and leads the Sentinels to the verge of victory despite the harassment of union players.
Acting standouts include Hackman, of course; Rhys Ifans as the chain-smoking soccer-style field goal kicker; and Langton, who despite a skimpily written role manages to be smart, funny and sexy. Reeves, though, struggles with an indifferently written character. He never quite gets a handle on what makes the guy tick on and off the field.
The Sentinel's replacement roster is jammed with funny ideas for characters that McKewin fails to develop: a Japanese sumo wrestler (Ace Yonamine), an overeager LAPD officer (Jon Favreau) and two bookends of beefcake (Michael "Bear" Taliferro and Faizon Love) who look like relatives of Sherman Klump who have drifted across the multiplex from where "The Nutty Professor II" is playing.
Director Howard Deutch keeps things moving along fast enough so one doesn't puzzle too long over inconsistencies, unlikely football plays or the need for repeated shots of the exotic dancers who have replaced the Sentinel cheerleaders.
With such behind-the-camera pros as cinematographer Tak Fujimoto, production designer Dan Bishop and editors Bud Smith and Seth Flaum, the film is a smooth and polished product. Would it be churlish to point out that these guys along with the fine actors are all union members?
THE REPLACEMENTS
Warner Bros.
in association with Bel-Air Entertainment
a Dylan Sellers production
Producer: Dylan Sellers
Director: Howard Deutch
Writer: Vince McKewin
Executive producers: Steven Reuther,
Jeffrey Chernov, Erwin Stoff
Director of photography: Tak Fujimoto
Production designer: Dan Bishop
Music: John Debney
Costume designer: Jill Ohanneson
Editors: Bud Smith, Seth Flaum
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shane Falco: Keanu Reeves
Jimmy McGinty: Gene Hackman
Annabelle Farrell: Brooke Langton
Clifford Franklin: Orlando Jones
Dainel Bateman: Jon Favreau
Nigel Gruff: Rhys Ifans
Jamal Jackson: Faizon Love
Andre Jackson: Michael "Bear" Taliferro
Running time - 109 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 7/31/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sixteen years after Chevy Chase loaded up the station wagon and hauled the wife and two kids off on one of his family-bonding vacations, this comic franchise is retracing overly traveled roads. Unfortunately, "Vegas Vacation" is not getting the same kind of laugh mileage as its more supple (excluding "European Vacation") precursors. Still, for those of us with a weak spot for the Griswold clan, there are enough welcome familiarities and slapstick sojourns to titillate, if not entirely tickle, the funny bone. Sagely produced by Jerry Weintraub, "Vegas'" funniest moments are, quite simply, inspired by the neo-neon setting of the land of Wayne Newton.
With the kids self-absorbed in their late-teen situations, papa Clark (Chase) entices his clan, including adoring wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and kids (Ethan Embry, Marisol Nichols), to take yet another family vacation. It's not an idea that they readily warm to, but Clark smartly pitches it as an opportunity for him and Ellen to renew their wedding vows. Packed and strung with plenty of silent-screen-style slapstick, this "Vacation" once again features Chase as the lovably klutzy family man whose eagerness to make the vacation perfect invariably botches things up. Indeed, screenwriter Elisa Bell dutifully follows the raucous road that writer-director John Hughes laid out with such anarchic energy during this franchise's early years. Despite following the same narrative map, "Vegas Vacation" never settles into more than a trip-tick around Las Vegas as the Griswolds are shepherded to one Vegas show -- Siegfried & Roy, Newton, etc. -- after another. There's a feeble story attempt to give Clark a gambling problem and a rather unbelievable interlude when Newton makes some moves on mama Griswold, but there's little comic substance.
While director Stephen Kessler has a smart, sardonic eye on Las Vegas craziness and an eager appreciation for using slapstick, the gags are slackly strung together and lamely punctuated. Not surprisingly, both Chase and D'Angelo have their parts down pat. As the squirrely but square Clark, Chase is a perfect blend of out-of-control compulsiveness, while D'Angelo is winningly radiant as his sweet-and-saucy wife. Still, "Vegas'" chief winnings come courtesy of the well-selected supporting players. Wallace Shawn, as a nettlesome and snide dealer, is a particular highlight, while Randy Quaid is once again a hoot as Clark's metal-brained cousin. As Jilly from Philly, producer Weintraub does an appropriately chilly turn as a guy you don't want to mess with.
Up and down the filmic strip, production values are flush, including William A. Fraker's snazzy cinematography and Carol James' aptly tacky costuming.
VEGAS VACATION
Warner Bros.
A Jerry Weintraub production
Producer Jerry Weintraub
Director Stephen Kessler
Screenwriter Elisa Bell
Story Elisa Bell, Bob Ducsay
Executive producers Matty Simmons,
Susan Ekins
Co-producer R.J. Louis
Director of photography William A. Fraker
Production designer David L. Snyder
Costume designer Carol James
Editor Seth Flaum
Music Joel McNeely
Color/stereo
Cast:
Clark Griswold Chevy Chase
Ellen Griswold Beverly D'Angelo
Cousin Eddie Randy Quaid
Rusty Griswold Ethan Embry
Dealer Wallace Shawn
Audrey Griswold Marisol Nichols
Cousin Catherine Miriam Flynn
Cousin Vickie Shae D'Lyn
Himself Wayne Newton
Themselves Siegfried & Roy
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
With the kids self-absorbed in their late-teen situations, papa Clark (Chase) entices his clan, including adoring wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and kids (Ethan Embry, Marisol Nichols), to take yet another family vacation. It's not an idea that they readily warm to, but Clark smartly pitches it as an opportunity for him and Ellen to renew their wedding vows. Packed and strung with plenty of silent-screen-style slapstick, this "Vacation" once again features Chase as the lovably klutzy family man whose eagerness to make the vacation perfect invariably botches things up. Indeed, screenwriter Elisa Bell dutifully follows the raucous road that writer-director John Hughes laid out with such anarchic energy during this franchise's early years. Despite following the same narrative map, "Vegas Vacation" never settles into more than a trip-tick around Las Vegas as the Griswolds are shepherded to one Vegas show -- Siegfried & Roy, Newton, etc. -- after another. There's a feeble story attempt to give Clark a gambling problem and a rather unbelievable interlude when Newton makes some moves on mama Griswold, but there's little comic substance.
While director Stephen Kessler has a smart, sardonic eye on Las Vegas craziness and an eager appreciation for using slapstick, the gags are slackly strung together and lamely punctuated. Not surprisingly, both Chase and D'Angelo have their parts down pat. As the squirrely but square Clark, Chase is a perfect blend of out-of-control compulsiveness, while D'Angelo is winningly radiant as his sweet-and-saucy wife. Still, "Vegas'" chief winnings come courtesy of the well-selected supporting players. Wallace Shawn, as a nettlesome and snide dealer, is a particular highlight, while Randy Quaid is once again a hoot as Clark's metal-brained cousin. As Jilly from Philly, producer Weintraub does an appropriately chilly turn as a guy you don't want to mess with.
Up and down the filmic strip, production values are flush, including William A. Fraker's snazzy cinematography and Carol James' aptly tacky costuming.
VEGAS VACATION
Warner Bros.
A Jerry Weintraub production
Producer Jerry Weintraub
Director Stephen Kessler
Screenwriter Elisa Bell
Story Elisa Bell, Bob Ducsay
Executive producers Matty Simmons,
Susan Ekins
Co-producer R.J. Louis
Director of photography William A. Fraker
Production designer David L. Snyder
Costume designer Carol James
Editor Seth Flaum
Music Joel McNeely
Color/stereo
Cast:
Clark Griswold Chevy Chase
Ellen Griswold Beverly D'Angelo
Cousin Eddie Randy Quaid
Rusty Griswold Ethan Embry
Dealer Wallace Shawn
Audrey Griswold Marisol Nichols
Cousin Catherine Miriam Flynn
Cousin Vickie Shae D'Lyn
Himself Wayne Newton
Themselves Siegfried & Roy
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 2/18/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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