Vegas Vacation is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Stephen Kessler in his feature directorial debut.

The film stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Wayne Newton, Ethan Embry, and Wallace Shawn.

It tells the story of Clark Griswold taking his family to Las Vegas to renew his vows to Ellen as the series' usual hilarity occurs.

After the food preservative that keeps perishable items fresh for years which he helped make has been approved, Clark Griswold earns the bonus promised to him in the previous film from Frank Shirley.

The next night, they are surprised to find that tickets to a Wayne Newton concert have been delivered to their hotel room, along with a dress for Ellen.

Audrey starts hanging out with Eddie's free-spirited exotic dancer daughter Vicki and her friends.

Clark gambles away the family's $22,600 bank account, leading a furious Ellen and the kids to desert him.

Rusty wins four cars from four separate slot machines, while Audrey goes to a strip club with Vicki and gets a job as a go-go dancer.

He had shown dissatisfaction with how the series had essentially turned into a star vehicle for Chevy Chase, and noted that Warner Bros. never told him about Vegas Vacation, only hearing about it by reading a trade magazine.

[4] Before Las Vegas was chosen as a setting, Chase thought of an idea in which the Griswolds become stranded on an island, similar to the Swiss Family Robinson story.

[9] Kessler said of the film, "I really wanted to make it a return to the old Chevy Chase that I loved, but for various reasons, it didn't work," stating further that "there was too much studio involvement.

"[10] Ethan Embry and Marisol Nichols became the fourth different set of actors to play the Griswold children, Audrey and Rusty.

[15] Production was expected to last two and a half months there, with approximately 10 days of filming also planned for studios in southern California.

One scene involved Chase's stunt double, John Robotham, swinging from a rope and slamming into the dam face.

Film crews did several takes of the scene, which involved Robotham being attached to a series of ropes and bolts 637 feet above the dam's power plant.

[22][23] Wayne Newton, who plays a fictionalized version of himself, requested a change to the script to help preserve his public image.

The critic consensus states, “The Vacation franchise hits rock-bottom in this corny and tepid trip to sinfully laugh-free city.”[33] According to review aggregation website Metacritic, which it was assigned a 20 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, the film received “generally unfavorable reviews.”[34] The film was nominated for The Sequel Nobody Was Clamoring For at the 1997 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards but lost to Free Willy 3: The Rescue.