Movie Review: Vacation (2015)

In 1983, the dream-team of Harold Ramis, John Hughes and Chevy Chase gave us an instant classic: National Lampoon's Vacation; the story of an average American family on a hilarious, calamity-filled cross country road trip to a theme park. The film spawned three sequels and one spin-off (yeah, Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure counts). Vacation (2015) is a sequel/reboot of the original franchise following Russ Griswold, the son of Chevy Chase's Clark Griswold, as he recreates the road trip his family undertook in his childhood. The movie has been out for some time and it has been pretty much panned by critics and fans alike. For that reason, I really wanted to hate this movie too. I don't usually do that with movies; I try to go into it with an open mind. But with this one I went in trying to find things that annoyed me. I really wanted to hate it but instead I had a pretty good time with it.
That's not to say it's perfect. Far from it! For one, Ed Helms is NOT a good choice for Rusty Griswold. Don't get me wrong; I love Helms on The Office and in The Hangover. The one thing those roles of his have in common is that they are not the main character. In Vacation, Helms is at the helm (heh) and sure, he can react to terrible circumstances believably, he lacks the heart of Clark Griswold.

The story itself is not terribly innovative. It's a road trip movie, which is expected, but you're never surprised by anything they run into along the way.

All of that I can forgive if a movie makes me laugh and Vacation did. The dynamic between Russ' two boys, which I thought would get really old, actually had me laughing out loud most of the way through. Not only that, I felt that subplot was resolved in a very satisfying way. Christina Applegate plays Russ' wife Debbie and she was pretty hilarious. Her chemistry with Helms isn't the best, but that's no fault of hers. Providing further laughs is an impressive set of cameos by Keegan-Michael Key, Regina Hall, Chris Hemsworth, Michael Pena, Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, Nick Kroll, and of course Chevy Chase.

In short, not all of the jokes hit and Ed Helms shouldn't have been cast, but Vacation is a fun, funny comedy that deserves a second look. Go watch it again and then let me know what you though!