This was mild, always expecting things to escalate much more, and something really bad to happen, like in the other movies - but nothing does, really. So Rusty has a couple of pool parties? Where's the harm in that? Audrey dances a little in a cage, fully dressed? How is that hurting anyone? And so on.

In the first movie, they made their car jump, brutally killed a dog, Clark nearly killed himself in the desert, they dragged a dead body on their roof, and Clark forces a security guard to obey him - by threatening the guard with a gun!

Here Clark just .. makes a few bets, loses a lot of money, and..? That's pretty much it.

When I read this topic, I thought it means that this is the only movie where it doesn't feel like the family is under some kind of holiday curse, making everything go wrong. Even the wife doesn't complain like she did in the first movie, trying to 'talk sense' into Clark.

Cousin Eddie's daughter is also just a boring (and ugly) old loser, who just 'dances' here and there, whereas in the first movie, the daughter took drugs, practiced incest and won pig competitions!

Eddie's family's situation doesn't seem to be that bad in this movie, he even has some buried extra money!

All in all, the movie never gets very dramatic at all, nothing really 'extreme' happens, and everything remains very mild in pretty much every level possible. Even cousin Eddie's disgusting ways - the most disgusting thing we see in this movie is the food on his face and the selection of food we are shown. Not very subtle (like the beer offering in the first movie) and can't even be compared to the Christmas Vacation's septic tank action.

And where Rusty was told about masturbation and shown porno magazines in the first movie, here the only thing that comes even relatively close is "If this is about sex, I already know, dad" (I am paraphrasing). That's it? It's not even funny.