Vacation (Review)

Vacation (2015)

Adventure, Comedy

Directed By: John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein 

For just over thirty years generations have come to know and adore the 1983 John Hughes written, Harold Ramis directed comedic classic Vacation. The wonderfully satirical landmark comedy has lived on for over three decades and is considered by many to be one of the funniest movies ever made. It spawned one of the best "sequels" of all time with Christmas Vacation, as well as European Vacation which was fine enough, and pure cash grab in Vegas years later in 1997. It has been almost twenty years since we last saw the Griswold family together and apparently someone has to pay the bills because this week we see the release of the fifth installment in the franchise. Borrowing the same title as the original film, but making it clear it is working as a continuation of the franchise and not a reboot, the new Vacation feels like anything but a Griswold family adventure.

It has been some time since we last saw our favorite dysfunctional suburban family together and since then Rusty (Ed Helms) has grown up to have a family of his own. He has a successful life and all the madness of being his father's son seems to be left in the past. That is until he overhears his wife (Christina Applegate) complaining about their yearly trip to the lake and how much they all hate it. He then takes a trip down memory lane and decides the only option for bringing his distant family back together is to hit the road and try to recreate his first family vacation to Walley World. Rusty believes it is the perfect way to reconnect with his wife and get his two sons, who have a reverse case of sibling bullying, to finally start getting along with each other. He seems to have a selective memory surrounding his original trip to Walley World however and it doesn't take long before many of the same problems, and plenty of new ones, begin to arise all over again.

This movie had sold me through the marketing, and even through the first few minutes of the movie as 'Holiday Road' blared through the speakers, that this was actually going to be a worthwhile "Vacation" franchise movie. The red band trailer was awesome and from it, I began to believe that this completely unnecessary sequel was actually going to be worth it. John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, who wrote and directed the film together, had the perfect opportunity to rebirth the franchise with a modern take on the suburban family satire that made the original so memorable. They had me believing through the first five minutes that they would actually accomplish this, before they literally pooped all over it.

The new Vacation isn't necessarily a bad movie, but it in no way reflects what the original pictures set to achieve. Instead of reflecting on, and poking fun at all of the new and different problems we face as a society today they opt for toilet humor and tasteless sex jokes instead. Rather than use their journey across the country to explore different kinds of people and lifestyles to show the clashing of cultures they use it as a backdrop for celebrity cameos. Even though I think the ridiculous amount of guest comedic appearances is one of the highlights of the film, they all seem to be playing cartoon characters that are only really there for a few quick laughs. Even the interesting characters, like Chris Hemsworth portrayal of a southern conservative, never seem to get much further than a few dick jokes before being left in the dust.

The decision to take the story into Rusty's life and away from Chevy Chase was definitely the right choice, but they missed the mark casting Ed Helms in the role. Either that or whoever wrote his part had no real grasp on who Rusty actually was in the first four movies. The wise ass, snarky son we loved through all of those movies is left at the wayside for a guy who you would think grew up as a poindexter. Rusty was a nerd, yeah, but he wasn't a neurotic and pathetic nerd. He had a sort of swagger and confidence to him that made him so likeable, no matter who was playing him and that all seemed to be lost with Helms rendition of him. It also makes the film significantly less enjoyable when you know this kid should have grown up into a hilariously cocky, yet super geeky guy that would have been a blast to see with a family.

The movie will make you laugh more than a few times, that's almost a guarantee as they use plenty of gross out and shock value humor to ensure their share of laughs even though the script is lacking any real story or relatable characters. Christina Applegate is great as always and the two kids are actually quite hilarious and have some of the best laughs of the film, but we never really get anywhere with their characters. We never really get why their marriage is truly faltering or why the kids have allowed this relationship between them to go on for so long. It is all quite hollow and that isn't acceptable for a movie in this franchise. If they wanted to make this raunchy, slapstick road-trip comedy with no real heart or purpose as an original movie, that would have been fine. However, if you are going to use the "Vacation" name and the beloved characters that John Hughes created thirty years ago then you should at least have the respect to at least try and make a movie in the vein of the originals.

I typically give remakes and reboots the benefit of the doubt and most of the time I praise them for trying to stray away from the original and do something different. In order to make that work though they need to capture the spirit or the atmosphere of the original and make something that respects that as well as builds off of it to create a new and different story. I don't know if I felt, for even one moment after 'Holiday Road' stopped playing, that I was actually watching a National lampoon's movie. It all just felt like a quickly thrown together, uninspired toss up that they hoped would snag them a few extra bucks while never for one moment caring if it stayed true to what it was building off of. I am actually angry that this movie is a failure, I believe this is one of the few beloved eighties franchises that could be kept alive and fresh if they put the right people behind it. Unfortunately, after seeing this, I'm hoping they just leave the franchise dead forever. Oh well, won't stop me from watching Christmas Vacation fifteen times this holiday season.

*Applegate's face says it all*

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later.