This reboot of Harold Ramis' 1983 classic National Lampoon's Vacation rehashes the central plot of the original but loses the heartfelt family sentiment along the way.
Fans of the original get ready for some nostalgia! Just like dad Clark (Chase) before him, Rusty Griswold (Helms) wants to take his wife Debbie (Applegate) and their two kids - sensitive, guitar-strumming teenager James (Gisondo) and potty-mouthed rascal Kevin (Stebbins) - on a cross-country road trip to Walley World to relive the best vacation of his childhood.
Cue the Albanian minivan (it’s actually a modified Toyota Previa) with an indecipherable remote, and a GPS system that gets stuck on Korean (he is a very angry man), and wait for the barrage of predictable and cringe-inducing gags to shift into first gear.
En route, the not-so-happy campers take a dip in a pool filled with human waste, cheat death after encountering a suicidal rafting instructor (Day) in the Grand Canyon and make a pit-stop at the home of Rusty's sister Audrey (Mann) and her hunky weatherman husband Stone (Hemsworth). What follows is a string of hammy shenanigans with even more tiring, crude jokes and gross-out scenes.
Directed and written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan M Goldstein, who previously co-wrote Horrible Bosses together, the new generation of Griswolds have no depth and aren't that likeable.
Helms' character is overdone throughout, but kudos must be given to the casting team for not making the movie an Adam Sandler-driven goofball fest (apparently, he was in the running). Applegate, meanwhile, is underused - bar one slightly humorous scene revisiting her character's wild sorority past.
Reprising their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo look uncomfortable and awkward, but a surprise appearance from The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus as a creepy trucker proves to be worthwhile.
Vacation will have you looking for an early checkout and, worst of all, it will have you humming Seal's Kiss from a Rose for days.
Here's hoping the Griswold family stay at home next summer.
Laura Delaney
