Review of Vacation (2015) by Nedsmanks — 16 Sep 2015

Expect little, gain a lot... kinda.

The original Vacation movies were a huge part of my youth. Was very sceptical about a reboot/follow up/studio rehash and I'm not a huge fan of Ed Helms. However, watching this, (initially through my fingers expecting a cringe-fest) I actually saw past the lack of Griswaldy-ness (yep) and genuinely liked the film as a standalone comedy. Christina Applegate is excellent, the two children are mostly funny and not slightly annoying and Chris Hemsworth's cameo is simply hilarious.

It's only really Ed Helms who doesn't get my vote as Rusty but on the whole, it's a decent comedy with a few laugh out loud moments. If you take off your 'Fan Of The Originals' hat and see through the thin plot, lack of Griswaldy-Ness (again), OTT toilet humour and the use of too much swearing then you can expect to gain an hour and a half's worth of serviceable entertainment.

And lastly, the nods to the original films are well spaced although the movie does depend on them to remind you this is the Griswalds we are supposed to be watching. And it's still kinda sad to see Chevy looking so old and being shoehorned in for the authenticity of the title, but, it made me feel nostalgic seeing him in this so I guess it's a good send off for his character.