Director: John Francis Daley
Cast: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Elizabeth Gillies, Chevy Chase, Michael Peña, Charlie Day, Regina Hall, Nick Kroll
Running time: 98 mins
Rating: 15
Release Date: August 28th, 2015
When you think of NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION from 1983 you may remember a funny family holiday, which included a young boy called Rusty Griswold (played by Anthony Michael Hall) who enjoyed a rather adventurous time. Well fast forward 25 years or so and you discover that little Rusty is all grown up now and seeking a memorable adventure all of his own with this family.
In VACATION we see Ed Helms experiencing some marital problems and he has decided a family bonding holiday could be just the trick, so he decides to revisit old ground and repeat that infamous cross-country road trip to Walley World with his two sons in tow; one a rather geeky teenager and the other a violent, swearing child!
John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s have brought a rather funny film to the big screen, that is rather predictable, but not short on the gags. As imagined, it is not the straight forward, average holiday Rusty was hoping for and things go wrong – lots of things. Rusty smashes into a cow; they accidentally find themselves bathing around in excrement in the ‘springs’, their car is a computerised disaster and somehow their road trip becomes all the more difficult when their GPS begins to scream at them in Korean.
Helms (like his lovable HANGOVER character) provides the giggles as the clueless, goofy dad and Christina Applegate is equally as funny as the regular mother one minute and next, she transforms into a rather sexually frustrated former-sorority party girl when she revisits her old university and the old ‘Debbie Do-Anything’ comes back to life, but not in the same fashion she was hoping for.
There are some moments when the hilarities feel too forced and some jokes falter, but undeniably there are scenes that make the audience giggle out loud. This is largely helped by cameo appearances of the comedian variety who revel in their moment on the big screen.
The performance-based comedy works well and some wise one-liners certainly help to raise the giggles. Chris Hemsworth shows off a completely different side as he plays Helms’s brother-in-law and without a doubt his rather large ‘package’ pulls off a few laughs – you simply can’t help it, as this time, he hasn’t got a big hammer that he has to handle, if you know what I mean.
Despite the comedy coming in from the adults, praise must not be taken away from the two younger counterparts that are forced to sit at the back of the crazy car together during the road trip. There is a great twist in the character plot with the younger, brother, Kevin (Steele Stebbins) being the bullish one of the two, whilst his older brother James (Skyler Gisondo) is far more dimmer, sweeter and softer.
The youngest of the two definitely has more of a sadistic side as he swears, manically tries to smother James with a plastic bag and has an obsession with wrestling. The bag gag though, is definitely one that may not float as well with the audience in the movie, those scenes are more menacing than comical.
Overall, VACATION does manage to draw out the laughs, but it certainly may never go down as one of the best comical masterpieces of all time. It is not any better or worse than the 1983 original film and having the likes of Helms on board certainly makes it entertaining as he is a naturally funny performer. Either way with so many reboots, remakes and sequels on the big screen at the moment, the comedy genre is still crying out for a new entertaining original feature.
Verdict
