Genre Guesstimation – Family Ties – Vacation (1985)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s genre has been chosen by me and we will be reviewing our favorite Family Vacation Movies.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Aug by sending them to FamilyVacation@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Family Vacation Movies.

“Some day, I’m gonna own this town.” – Alex P. Keaton

Number of Times Seen – At least twice (TV in ’85 and 16 Aug 2022)

Brief Synopsis – The whole Keaton family takes a trip to England in order to accompany Alex to a summer at Oxford, but unwittingly get involved in an international espionage conspiracy.

My Take on it – Fun way to take this sitcom to strange places. The fact that the story is less comedic than usual is a bit strange since we’re use to hearing a laugh track along the way. That being said, the tone of the story doesn’t work so well as a pseudo-spy thriller. Great way to see these characters in a very diverse kind of situation, but there is a reason that this was the sole movie they made as part of this show.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Came out the same year as National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), with many similar plot points. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Not really. Fun TV movie that tries to add intrigue into a comedy plot, but doesn’t work as well as one might hope.

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10) (no change from original review)