Vacation
Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins
Directed By: Jonathan M. Goldstein & John Francis Daley
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi

[rating: 2.5/5]

All aboard the ‘Nostalgia Train’, choo choo! What’s that? You’re already on it? Because 90% of the movies released this year have been reboots, rehashes, re-imaginings or continuations? Well, you better stay on I guess because we’ve still got four months and a couple dozen of those to go. This week’s nostalgia-based cash-in is a pseudo-sequel/continuation of the original National Lampoons Vacation films from the 80s. A series that brings up a lot of fond memories for fans of immature slap-stick shenanigans and the typical pointless bare-breasts seen in way too many 80s films. Will this new generation of Griswold’s be able to capture that stupid, yet charming, adolescent sense of fun or will it just be another one for this year’s ever growing nostalgia-failure pile?
Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) is all grown up. He has a family of his own, a stable job as a commercial domestic airline pilot and is perfectly happy with the mediocre life he has built for himself. Unfortunately his family isn’t quite as chuffed as he is. When Rusty notices his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) is unhappy and his children James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins) are bored he decides to do something about it. With (potentially misplaced) fond memories of his childhood trip to Wally World, Rusty gathers his family together to drive across the country in the family road trip to end all family road trips. What could possibly go wrong?
Vacation positively reeks of your typical ‘studio-written’ comedy formula that seems really popular these days. This is where the studio hires a main set of screenwriters, in this case Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who also directed), to write a basic plot structure for the film. Nothing too fancy, just a sequence of main events and a couple of emotional beats so that you can give your characters at least the image of growth and development. Then you get together a room full of people, it doesn’t really matter who, mostly comedy writers and comedians, and get them to throw in as many disconnected and nonsensical jokes as humanly possible. Virtually, it’s the ‘throw shit at the wall and see what sticks’ method of comedy. This is Vacation in a nutshell. A lot of jokes work. Sometimes really, really well. There’s enough here to make you laugh out loud at least a couple of times depending on your brand of humour. But the rest just falls flat. There’s so much shit just constantly being hurled at you that some of it is bound to hit in the right place. It’s just a pity that most of it doesn’t.
Easily the best part of Vacation is its performances. Ed Helms does an admirable job as Rusty Griswold, bringing that daft, naïve yet oddly charming quality that he has been nailing for quite a few years now. The kids are funny and, on the most part, likeable. Skyler Gisondo as James plays the unsure and overly sensitive older brother to perfection and Steele Stebbins as the delinquent bully younger brother is a hoot. The real stand-out in the Griswold family, however, is Christina Applegate as mother/wife Debbie. For some reason I always forget how great of a comedic actress Christina Applegate is and every time I see her in a comedy I am delighted at her engaging on-screen presence and her sharp comedic timing. Add in some fantastic cameo performances that make up almost all of the funniest parts of the film and you have a truly fantastically cast film.
Vacation isn’t a great movie; it’s not even that particularly good. It is messy, unevenly funny and has a lot more misses than hits. Still, there’s an undeniable goofy charm that this film taps into, not unlike the original Vacation films. Helped along greatly by a stellar cast absolutely owning their roles, Vacation definitely isn’t the comedy event of the year, but you may just get enough chuckles out of it to make it worth the price of admission.