John Francis Daley, Jonathan M. Goldstein (director)
Warner Bros (studio)
15 (certificate)
99 mins (length)
21 August 2015 (released)
21 August 2015
The Griswolds are back but this time it is grown up Rusty leading his family on more holiday hell. Remembering fond, childhood memories of his trip to Walley World, Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) surprises his wife (Christina Applegate) and two sons with a cross-country excursion to America's favourite fun park.
Following in his father's (Chevy Chase) footsteps, Rusty and the gang pack up the car and hit the road for some much-needed family bonding. Soon, the promise of fun turns into one misadventure after another for the next generation of Griswolds and anyone who encounters them. Too often remakes or reboots fail to work, relying as they do mainly on the familiarity of the originals but that is not the case here. Vacation is hilarious from start to finish.
The writing and directing from the double act of John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein is better, sharper and much funnier than their last collaboration on Horrible Bosses. They obviously hold the original in high regard and there are a lot in-jokes based on it. However, if you havn’t seen the original it doesn’t matter, as a stand alone movie it is still hilarious.
Some of the humour is a little gross, I’m not sure you’d want anyone under fifteen watching, but it all works. It probably lacks a little of the charm of the originals but the it would be difficult to not laugh out loud for large swathes of this film. Ed Helms is a natural choice to play the Clerk character, Christina Applegate is very good and the two sons played by Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins are excellent. Chris Hemsworth and Leslie Mann cameo brilliantly and it is verging on emotional to see Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo as Clerk and Ellen again. This movie is a good old fashioned laugh fest, it is defintly worth a watch. So take a Vacation from the big hitting superhero’s film that are out this summer, sit back and relax and prepare to laugh- a lot. Enjoy.