Originally titled Out Of Omaha, writer-director Linda Vorhees' family vacation oriented comedy isn't able to do much of anything right. Which is truly unfortunate because I've enjoyed stars Dave Foley and Lea Thompson's work in the past and they're stuck in a script that tries (poorly) to balance lightweight "we're never going to get out of town!" mishap comedy with a lot of heavy-handed stabs at drama that only help make things more bizarre than anything and only drag things down, kicking and screaming, into a pit of vapidity.

Foley and Thompson play Stu and Ginger Grainor, who've decided upon big plans this summer as they've bought up an RV and are getting ready to head-out on a road trip to the far-fling California beaches. Along for the ride is their video gaming son Milo (David Kalis) and rebellious teenage daughter Cookie (Lindsay Seim). Things start to go wrong early when Stu just can't seem to figure out how to arm the alarm in their house and when they find Cookie's boyfriend, Kevin (Nicholas Fackler), hiding in the RV just before they're about to cross the State line.

This causes them to have to circle back around, which only puts them behind schedule much to Ginger's dismay as Vorhees goes through the "vacation from Hell" paces setting up various set pieces like a visit to Kevin's white trash-like parents, constant bickering between our parental units, much grief from Stu's sister Bonnie (Patricia Richardson, TV's "Home Improvement") and mother, and the eventual kidnapping of Bonnie's dog, which just feels absolutely unnecessary and out-of-left-field in context of the entire movie.

That's probably the main problem with California Dreaming; it never knows what it wants to be. On the one hand Vorhees wants you to be amused by our families misfortune but it's made harder to take when Thompson's character has an awful and selfish attitude (she constantly whines about getting there in time and how it's "her" vacation) and there's some jarring moments like when Richardson's character proclaims Ginger should just, "shoot Granny in the head".

What starts out as a harmless, weekend TV-movie feeling effort, ends up becoming a hard to take time. It is possible to make vacation comedies fire on all cylinders, a fact that is proven ten-fold by the 1983 classic, National Lampoon's Vacation, but that's simply because those movies went for laughs, had characters you didn't mind spending time with, and laid off on the drama. California Dreaming doesn't succeed on those points as any goodwill you might have towards it is trampled by, as I stated before, Thompson's character as well as mis-guided seriousness and plentiful religious spouting. I would rather watch Randy Quaid reprise his role as "Cousin Eddie" in yet another pointless direct-to-DVD Vacation sequel than have to spend any more time with any of the people populating Vorhees' sloppy effort.

Foley, who once shined brightly in "Kids in the Hall" and "NewsRadio" before hosting "Celebrity Poker Showdown" at the peak of Texas Hold 'Ems popularity, is likeable enough as the nebbish Stu, while his former "NR" co-star Vicki Lewis is the best thing here as Kevin's parolee mother, Teensie, but even they can't save California Dreaming from becoming exactly what it deserves to be: an obscure comedy starring a bunch of people who's acting primes passed by years ago. (Chris Hartley, 8/17/08)

Directed By: Linda Vorhees.
Written By: Linda Vorhees.

Starring: Dave Foley, Lea Thompson, Vicki Lewis, Ethan Phillips.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: While there are a few soft-looking moments the transfer here is clean and the clarity just fine. It's a perfectly acceptable looking picture.

Extras: We get a trailer as well as fairly lengthy biographies for most of the cast and crew involved.

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