10 Movie Sequels That'll Definitely Make You Angry
6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure
1989’s National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is ripe with engaging and hilarious Griswold family members, and the socially inept Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) is one of the best. But, as protagonist Clark Griswold knows all too well, Eddie and his family can only be tolerated in small doses. Thus, 2003’s made-for-TV successor, Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure, was pretty much doomed from the start.
Here, Eddie’s stupidity is exaggerated to the point of being unbearably childish and unbelievable; in addition, the return of Miriam Flynn as his wife, Catherine, alongside the wasted talent of newcomers like Ed Asner, Fred Willard, and Eric Idle just makes the viewer embarrassed for everyone on screen.
The plot – revolving around Eddie and company getting shipwrecked on a South Pacific island and subsequently getting into various hijinks – doesn’t do it any favors, either, since it’s simultaneously cliché, forced, and cringeworthy.
Like every other comedy sequel on this list, Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure is an amateurishly made and performed product that desperately tries – and greatly fails – to capitalize on its namesake. Granted, the National Lampoon trademark lost its cinematic luster many years ago, but that doesn’t excuse any of this one’s many, many transgressions.