[Review] Vacation

It doesn't seem like we needed this, did we? With National Lampoon's Vacation already being considered a cult staple by many, 2015's Vacation represents the lowest of the low of Hollywood's haphazard, compromising, and unoriginal decisions to pump out these smelly and wasteful remakes.

Rusty Griswald (Ed Helms) and Debbie Griswald's (Christina Applegate) marriage has hit a rough spot, and their two boys James and Kevin don't get along. Rusty, being the son of Clark Griswald (Chevy Chase) decides to take a vacation to Wally World just like old times, and the whole setup reeks of "Why in the hell are we doing this again?"

Its brand of humor is a brand of humor that warrants no laughs, from the rudimentary slapstick to the awful dialogue. At one point, Rusty walks into the kitchen and says "Kids I have exciting news!" and Kevin responds with "James has AIDS?!" I'm open to a variety of different humor but I didn't even chuckle once throughout this entire thing. When the attempts at jokes make you more angry than happy, you know something is severely wrong with the film.

So, it goes without saying that this is a completely bastardized version of its predecessor. Scene for scene, it presents its spin on the original, but the spin just happens to be the worst version of each one. And it surely doesn't help that the kids are super obnoxious and unlikable here. The film's only possible bright spot is the Chris Hemsworth sequence, but even the best parts of that were already shown during the trailers. And Chevy Chase's appearance is just sadly uninspired.

Avoid taking this ride at all costs.

4/10