Vacation

"I've never even heard of the original Vacation."
"Doesn't matter. The new Vacation will stand on it's own."

I went into the latest entry in the Vacation series already a big fan, more or less, of the previous four films. To summarize, the first and third films are comedy classics, the second one is decent and the fourth one was pretty good. So, I went into this new one with high hopes, based on the trailers. Were those hopes met? Ehh...

Rusty Griswold (played by Ed Helms) is all grown up now with a family of his own. He is working as a pilot for a discount airline (whose motto is that they're working to earn back their passenger's trust). He is looking forward to once again taking his family on their annual vacation to a cabin off Lake Michigan when he overhears his wife, Debbie (played by Christina Applegate) telling a friend how much she's dreading it. Realizing he was the only one who enjoyed those trips, he comes up with a new vacation plan. Retracing his family's original trip to Walley World in California. He packs up the wife and two sons, sensitive James (played by Skyler Gisondo) and psychotic little shit Kevin (played by Steele Stebbins) in their rental car, a Tartan Prancer ("It's the Honda of Albania!" Rusty proclaims proudly, before admitting the rental car options were pretty sparse on a holiday weekend), and head off across country with only one goal: Walley World or bust.

I have to give credit where credit is due first and foremost that despite a repeat of the destination, the new film does come up with a whole new set of adventures for the next Generation of Griswolds to embark upon. From several run ins with a rather intimidating semi-truck to Debbie's ill-advised attempt to relive her Sorority glory days when they stop off at her alma mater to visiting Aunt Audrey (played by Leslie Mann) and her husband Stone (played by Chris Hemsworth), it doesn't rest on repeating the gags from the original film, although a couple of the more famous ones get an amusing twist. But, the bigger question is does the new material work? Unfortunately, the answer is mixed. I laughed a bit through the film, but there were sequences that just completely grossed me out. The sequence when the family mistakes a pool of raw sewage for a hot spring particularly gave me the dry heaves. The original film series was never what one would call classy, but it was never this gross either, not even when Cousin Eddie emptied his chemical toilet into a storm drain in Christmas Vacation. 

There are some laughs to be had with the movie, from the crazy rental car and all it's nonsensical special features, including a button that makes the driver's chair swivel around to face the back seat that they accidentally hit while driving down the highway probably provided the biggest laugh in the movie for me because it was just ridiculous. Still, much of the humor in the film is much darker than the original film. For example, the squabbling siblings. Yes, in the original films, Russ and Audrey fought their fair amount, but they never outright tried to kill each other, unlike this film where the younger brother Kevin literally tries to suffocate his brother with a plastic bag while their parents remain oblivious in the front seat. That's not funny, that's disturbing.  

For a film that claims that it will stand on it's own, the best moments in the film are callbacks to the previous films, particularly the first film. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo pop up for glorified cameos towards the end as Clark and Ellen to set our hapless family once again on the path to Walley World, in the original Wagon Queen Family Truckster no less. The frequent use of Lindsey Buckingham's Holiday Road (the official anthem of the Vacation series), a callback to the hot girl in the Ferrari flirting with Russ, and assorted other moments. I enjoyed those little nods, but at the same time if you're not a fan, those moments will likely fall flat. 

Vacation has it's moments and there were times when I got a good laugh out of it, but at the same time it's not enough to really recommend it. If you're a fan of the films that came out before it, you will probably get more mileage out of it, but even then I'd say it's a rental at best.