National Lampoon’s Vacation is a comedy landmark. A boundary pushing bit of hilarity that stands the test of time and spawned two sequels funnier than the original (and Vegas Vacation). Of course National Lampoon has been dead for years now, but the franchise lives on. Well, it does now thanks to Vacation, a reboot/sequel to the original film.
No one really wanted this. I think we’re all in agreement on that. There was no one clamoring for another Vacation film, especially after the franchise had been driven into the ground through a straight-to-video Randy Quad spin-off. Now that we know that we didn’t want this lets look at what we got.
Vacation
Directors: John Francis Daley, Jonathan M. Goldstein
Rated: R
Release Date: July 29, 2015
First off lets give props where props are due. New Line could have geared this film for a PG-13 rating to pull in more people, but they didn’t (as Hemsworth’s wang below shows). They kept it R like the original and for that they should be applauded because the R-rated comedy is a dying breed. It was a signal that the this new Vacation might just pull itself up by its own boot straps and be funny. The signal got a little diluted.
The movie picks up years after the original films. Rusty (Ed Helms) is all grown up, and even more out of touch with his own family than his dad was. His wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate) and kids James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins) hate the normal cabin vacation they go on so Rusty decides he’ll pack everyone into a car and recreate his family’s trip to Wally World. That one went pretty poorly as we all may remember, but they’re doing it again. In fairness the film is blatantly forward about the fact that it’s a remake and that takes some of the sting out of the copped comedy from the original.
There is something refreshingly old school about Vacation‘s comedy. It feels a bit out of date in its gross out site gags and senseless punchlines. Honestly, it’s a bit refreshing in a land of comedies that take themselves too seriously or have forgotten how to properly kick a guy in the nuts for comic effect. Slapstick is a sadly dying art. The problem is that Vacation doesn’t really execute its slapstick that well. There are definitely moments when the movie pulls off some solid comedy, but it too often feels forced. The film constantly seems to want to push boundaries with its comedy, but never checks to see if that boundary is worth breaking.
The movie works here and there, but never long enough to make it any good. James and Kevin’s relationship is actually pretty funny, but it pounds the same joke into the ground for far too long. Helms delivers a solidly oblivious father, but the family relations never feel real thanks to how dumb he is. You never get the connection you got with Chevy Chase’s increasingly grumpy Clark Griswold. And not that continuity is something you’d expect in this case, but it’s very unclear how the Rusty of the original films turned into the Rusty of this film. Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo’s cameo is also horribly wasted making the connections to the original feel more like a cash grab than actual care.
The biggest problem, however, is when Vacation goes way beyond where it should. It mocks murder, suicide and sexual abuse of a minor. I’m all for comedy being allowed to make fun of disturbing subjects; it’s one of the ways we cope. The problem is when that comedy isn’t funny. Vacations jokes in these departments fall horrendously flat meaning they’re both offensive and unfunny. They’re clearly trying to make themselves edgy, but they stink at doing it. It pushes the old school comedy into the background and turns the film into something more akin to a Scary Movie sequel.
Vacation is a movie that no one wanted so its hard to say that it’s a major disappointment. It can actually be funny at times, especially thanks the Helms being a funny person, but it’s mostly just retreaded jokes and poorly delivered gross out comedy. The vacation from Vacation films really shouldn’t have ended.
