national lampoon ' s thanksgiving family reunion
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it turns out that i was wrong. national lampoon’s holiday reunion is no proud, official member of the vacation family of hateful movies about the terrible things that befall respectable white people when they are forced to interact with people unlike themselves. national lampoon’s holiday reunion wishes that its lineage could be traced back to the likes of vegas vacation and national lampoon’s christmas vacation 2: uncle eddie’s island adventures. it aches to have that pedigree, that prestige .
national lampoon’s holiday reunion is not a vacation movie so much as it is an off - brand, insanely derivative knock - off of the franchise kicked off by the harold ramis - directed, john hughes - written smash of the reagan era. the insane thievery begins with a title that’s more or less a clumsy synonym for vacation. naming a self - cannibalizing national lampoon vacation rip - off holiday reunion would be like national lampoon following up animal house with a wholly unrelated sex comedy called national lampoon’s beast fraternity building .
this movie was very different than other national lampoon' s vacation movies. it was ok but not that funny .
national lampoon’s holiday reunion’ s plot calls for the wealthy anesthesiologist to receive a missive from his long - lost cousin woody, who wants to reunite with his more successful relative for a good old fashioned family thanksgiving. the doctor’s family is unenthused about leaving their comfort zone and interacting with strange people but the highly paid medical professional seizes upon this as an opportunity to finally experience a norman rockwell - style traditional holiday .
if national lampoon’s holiday reunion isn’t an official part of the vacation canon it is more or less a shot - by - shot knockoff of the sequences from vacation involving chevy chase’s clark griswold and his uptight upper - middle - class family being traumatized by screaming vulgarity of randy quaid’s instantly and unfortunately iconic cousin eddie .
ugh, i am sick of this whole
national lampoon
movie thing. the only truly funny laugh out loud, and hillarious national lampoon movies are the vacation series, other than that ...
i know what you’re thinking: yes, i subjected myself to another national lampoon film. despite the similarity in titles, holiday reunion is not a sequel to previous movie of the day class reunion, instead taking its inspiration from the brand’s signature vacation series (the film’s tagline acknowledges this, stating “this family trip is no vacation”) .
i would like to know why they took thanksgiving out of this movie? this movie came on tv today, i was looking for thanksgiving movies as there are not many at all .
the tbs “original” movie’s word - salad of a title would be shameless and borderline unforgivable even if a movie entitled national lampoon’s class reunion (also written by a young and hungry john hughes) didn’t already exist, and if lindsay buckingham’s wonderfully catchy theme song to vacation wasn’t called “holiday road. ”
like the vacation movies, national lampoon’s holiday reunion reserves much of its derision, judgment and sour mockery for the poor and uneducated, but it really hates everybody. it’s primarily classist, but it’s just as misanthropic. yet after an endless parade of limply executed fart jokes and sex jokes and dumb redneck jokes, the film inexplicably attempts to eke some emotion and pathos out its characters .
the dvd box for holiday reunion quips, “this family trip is no vacation”, which is both true and untrue. holiday reunion desperately wants to be a vacation movie but can’t measure up to their low, low standards. thirteen years later, holiday reunion is notable mainly for being cranston’s professional rock bottom. its existence serves as a stark and brutally unfunny reminder that even the very best of us can do egregiously awful work .
but don’t worry: a national tour is set to kick off in fall 2019 .
all mitch snider wants for his family is a traditional holiday feast with the relatives. the problem is that he doesn' t have any. that is until he gets an invitation in the mail from his long - lost cousin woodrow. what follows is a full - course meal of nonstop laughs when the neurotic suburbanites clash with the hippy hicks from hell in national lampoon' s most outrageous family misadventure yet .
holiday reunion even has woody and his cousin shower together for the sake of gay - panic jokes that announce themselves clumsily, then linger for far too long. national lampoon’s holiday reunion intermittently aspires to the comedy of awkwardness and discomfort. but in scenes like the one where woody and pauline practically dry - hump in front of the doctor and his wife’s disapproving eyes there is no comedy to be found, only profound awkwardness and discomfort. that extends to the audience and the filmmakers .
this movie was really, really, really bad. i can' t believe it was even made. i thought national lampoon would have written a better movie. avoid this movie .
a famous hollywood anesthetist yearns for a more simple, authentic reality, so when his long lost cousin invites him over for thanksgiving, he drags his snotty spoiled family along to meet what of course turn out to be a bunch of rednecks with a heart of gold .
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review: veteran comedy writer / director neal israel' s tasteless turkey of a made - for - tv thanksgiving picture, originally broadcast on tbs, is an unpleasant feast of scatological humor and dumb and dumber shtick. beverly hills anesthesiologist mitch snyder (judge re… (more )
verdict: one to miss. holiday reunion currently holds a 3. 5 / 10 on imdb and a 0% on rotten tomatoes .
i guess the acting is decent considering the material these poor guys and girls were given to work with, as the script is an absurd mess of annoying clichés you’ve seen better handled elsewhere, full of clunky dialogue and bad characterization. overall a very poorly - made film, even considering the fact it’s a national lampoon production that was made for tv .
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unsurprisingly the film is nowhere near as good as the vacation movies, though to its credit it has a few more laughs than class reunion (which is however much better made). the film’s two recurring gags, one which has a dog named yoko coming up from behind to lick judge reinhold’s balls while a background singer croons “yo - ko! ” and the other having an old dude farting loudly, should give you an idea of the picture’s sense of humor. yes, it’s that bad and both happen at least five or six times throughout the movie .
veteran comedy writer / director neal israel' s tasteless turkey of a made - for - tv thanksgiving picture, originally broadcast on tbs, is an unpleasant feast of scatological humor and dumb and dumber shtick. beverly hills anesthesiologist mitch snyder (judge reinhold) wishes his pampered wife, jill (hallie todd), would just once prepare a traditional holiday... read more
region: region 1 (u. s. and canada only. read more about dvd formats. )
cranston really throws himself into the vulgar low comedy of the role. he’s the antithesis of walter white. where walter white is famously bald and clean - shaven, woody is almost preternaturally hirsute. where walter white is a genius, woody is dim - witted almost to the point of being mentally challenged. where walter white is a control freak, woody is a shambling mess. most importantly, where walter white was a brilliant character and performance in a television show people adore, woody is a terrible character and performance in a movie that’s an abomination even by late - period national lampoon standards .
[ a ] s crass and disgusting as a movie can get and still be aired on basic cable ...
yep, that’s right. before he shaved his head to play a glowering psychotic the world fell in love with, and became one of our most beloved, respected and acclaimed thespians, bryan cranston thoroughly embarrassed himself as a misbegotten cross between cousin eddie, woody harrelson in full - on hippie dippy stoner moon child mode (cranston’s character is even named woody, for christ’s sake), and harry and lloyd from dumb & dumber. in white, cranston created one of pop culture’s true originals, but cranston’s spaced - out goofball is as shamelessly derivative in conception and execution as everything else in the movie .
when the doctor and his family show up at woody’s house they are mortified to discover that their cousin is a shaggy - haired, muttonchops - sporting space cadet hippie caricature with an unfortunate predilection for invading people’s personal spaces, often while unclothed. like all good proper americans, mitch and his uptight wife understandably see sex as something gross and sick and wrong, that should be done privately, and shamefully, and only for the purpose of procreation .
in a cynical attempt to be something more than bottom - feeding schlock, holiday reunion forces unconvincing epiphanies and redemptive emotional arcs on its lead characters. the doctor learns to be less uptight and more sexual (leading to a film - closing bestiality gag that sadly ends the movie on an characteristically gross note) while woody learns to stand up and be a hero and be the man his family needs and other assorted crap .
this made - for - tv mess seems to be cast by the
who' s got a mortgage payment due
agency .
“i want to tell the truth. that’s where my storytelling comes from. my feminism comes from somewhere else: acute dissatisfaction. ”
i thought it was going to be funny with the previews on tbs, but when i saw the real thing, it was pathetic. somehow the film was serious than actually funny. its about a depressed man for which his family doesn' t give a damn about him. bryan cranston plays the long lost cousin of judge reinhold for which he is a putz on the nervous breakdown and wants a real relationship with his family. bryan was the reason i watched this movie .
all mitch snider wants for his family is a traditional holiday feast with the relatives. the problem is that he doesn' t have any. that is until he gets an invitation in the mail from his... see full summary »
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i rented this movie (thankfully, a free rental) because i love hallie todd as an actress. she' s the only saving grace in the movie .
being poor, uneducated hillbilly - stoner - hippie - rednecks, however, woody and his equally spacey wife pauline (penelope anne miller) flaunt their sexuality in ways guaranteed to horrify both the squares in their family and the squares in the audience. woody and pauline think nothing of making out hardcore for a seeming eternity in front of their cousins, or ambiguously trying to rope them into a semi - incestuous swinger - type scenario despite mitch being, you know, woody’s cousin .
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home for the holidays official trailer # 1 - jodie foster, robert downey jr. movie (1995) hd
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actually, i give no stars. this movie is so bad the viewer should be paid to watch it. terrible script, acting not even at high school level. the story is inane, enough with the stoner movies. the days of the vacation movies over .
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in the cousin eddie role, the filmmakers (including director neal israel, whose resume includes co - writing credits on real genius and police academy) cast a veteran sitcom actor apparently just itching for an opportunity to show the world his genius for rancid sex comedy: bryan cranston .
i would love to be able to report that cranston elevates the proceedings, that he is able to smuggle some measure of emotion or subversion or cleverness into this dispiriting aggregation of jokes about gross people fucking and old people fucking and dogs fucking people. but this is one of those strange instances where a talented actor committing wholeheartedly to a role somehow works against the project .
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national lampoon 's thanksgiving family reunion is a 2003 television film about a thanksgiving family reunion of the sniders , starring bryan cranston as woodrow snider , judge reinhold as dr. mitch snider and penelope ann miller as jill snider . the film was released as national lampoon 's holiday reunion in some regions . 
national lampoon's thanksgiving family reunion is a 2003 television film about a thanksgiving family reunion of the sniders, starring bryan cranston as woodrow snider, judge reinhold as dr. mitch snider and penelope ann miller as jill snider. the film was released as national lampoon's holiday reunion in some regions.
national lampoon's thanksgiving family reunion is a 2003 television film about a thanksgiving family reunion of the sniders, starring bryan cranston as woodrow snider, judge reinhold as dr. mitch snider and penelope ann miller as jill snider. the film was released as national lampoon's holiday reunion in some regions.