Review of Vacation (2015) by Bill M — 28 Mar 2016

This sequel to the original Vacation series has a lot of factors one could argue against, like the fact that it's a semi remake of the first film, or that it's actually way more gross, vulgar and crude than those movies ever were but when the film is this funny who cares.

Like an 80's comedy it has that boundless sense of fun and ridiculousness to it, and it rattles along from one comedy set piece to the next. It's absolutely filled with sight gags and hilarious details like the Tartan Prancer car's varied and bizarre control buttons for instance (honey is that a swastika?) and the new generation of Griswalds are great, Ed Helms as the now grown up Rusty is as effortlessly hilarious and charming as ever, Skyler Gisondo is brilliantly odd and awkward as older son James and Steele Stebbins (seriously these fucking names) is gleefully nasty as the truly horrible younger brother Kevin but the movies true MVP is Christina Applegate as Debbie, finally aloud to let loose off the chain as the gifted comedian she is after being sidelined in too many straight roles in comedy films, she's really fantastic.

To make things even better Chevy Chase and Beverly D'angelo pop up as Clark and Ellen Griswald for brief but wonderful cameos. This movie is a load of low brow fun, check it out.