Vacation Review
By Tom Fugalli
Time off for bad behavior
32 years after National Lampoon's 1983 "Vacation," The Griswalds continue their quest for family fun in this sequel/reboot, written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein ("Horrible Bosses").
Rusty Griswald (Ed Helms), son of Clark (Chevy Chase) and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), repeats his childhood road trip to Walley World with his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and his sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins). Rusty's sister Audrey (Leslie Mann) is visited along the way, with her weatherman husband Stone (Chris Hemsworth), who has a "cocky" presence as a kind of Southern Republican Thor.
A last-minute car rental means Rusty is stuck with a "Tartan Prancer" (because that's what happens). A.K.A. the "Honda of Albania", this vehicle looks the same from the front and back, has a GPS that screams your location, and is fully loaded with self-destructive features. It also quickly runs out of fuel despite having two gas tanks. But it gets great mileage on cheap laughs! Tragically, it's not the cast but the car that makes this movie a character-driven comedy.
This is an R-rated "Vacation", and it's unclear who is the intended audience. Its sensibility swings from teen slapstick to middle-aged nostalgia. The kids drop F-bombs and the mother vomits (impressively). Dad is asked what a "rimjob" is (as if there's no internet to ask). A graphic grossness is to be expected and welcomed here, but the recurring rape and pedophilia jokes are wrong turns.
There are meta references to the first "Vacation", for example when Rusty straight up references "the first vacation". A teen version of the Christie Brinkley character is paired with Rusty's teenage son. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo make sentimental cameos, which mostly serve to make fans of the original feel old.
As the fifth movie in the series (are we there yet?) "Vacation" takes us down Holiday Road and Memory Lane. But both turn out to be dead-end streets.
