Vacation is an attempt to continue the National Lampoon Vacation story so of course most people immediately wrote this off. I heard almost nothing good about this film so never made an effort to catch it in the theater. We recently added HBO so I can watch Game of Thrones before the internet spoils all the deaths that will inevitably occur and Vacation is on demand. To my surprise, we laughed quite a bit and felt that Vacation falls into the Not a total Waste of Time category.
Vacation Overview
Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) attempts to recapture the joy of his family vacations when he was a kid with his family to help spice things up with his wife and reconnect with his sons.
The movie is stupid funny. Not the cool version of the word stupid spelled “stoopid,” but the more traditional meaning of the word. Yet, it had me laughing at multiple points. I didn’t give the film 100% of my attention, but it didn’t need it. It grabbed my attention when it wanted me to laugh and often it got it. It did make me sad that my wife laughed harder at one scene of this film than I can remember her laughing at any other movie we’ve ever seen. Her sense of humor baffles me, but the commercial with dogs driving a car is one of her favorite jokes ever. Nevertheless, it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated based on what I’d heard.
Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, and Steele Stebbins play the Griswolds. The family dynamic has some funny moments although Stebbins, being the youngest brother, probably swears more than any of the other characters in the film. It’s a cheap way to get laughs, but it seems to happen more and more in films. The movie is a little more adult than what I remember from the other Vacation films. This movie pulled in Chris Hemsworth, Leslie Mann, Charlie Day, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Keegan-Michael Key, and Ron Livingston to help add to the comedy.
Ultimately, the movie isn’t anything spectacular, but if you like stupid comedy it’s not too bad. I did laugh at a few scenes and I was reminded that Christina Applegate is really funny if she gets cast in the right role. It is a bit vulgar and the b-story is Helms trying to spice up the relationship with Applegate, and, while it doesn’t show anything, there are lots of things said.
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