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Author
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Topic: Vacation (2015)
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Matt Russell
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 142
From: Aurora, USA
Registered: Aug 2015
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posted 08-08-2015 10:34 PM
As a huge fan of the previous National Lampoon's Vacation movies, even the mediocre ones like Vegas and European, I was super excited to see the new reboot. Even though I've never been impressed with Ed Helms besides his humorous role in the Hangover movies, the idea of seeing Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo return on the big screen even for a cameo was exciting and worth admission to me. However, this new Vacation is a big disappointment. Rusty Griswold (Helms) tries to become the next Clark Griswold (Chase) by taking his family back to Walley World. However, unlike the original Griswolds, the new ones are very stereotypical. His wife Debbie, played by Christina Applegates, is someone you'd think would work very well as the yang to Rusty's yin, but she behaves just as bad as he does. There's one thing where they visit her old sorority house, and she ends up almost violently vomiting that'll make you feel disgusted if you laughed at that. Their children treat each other pretty horribly, as the youngest brother seems destined to "kill" his older brother at any given chance. I don't see how this is "funny". There's some decent cameos from Chris Hemsworth as Audrey Griswold's (Leslie Mann, who gets incredibly underused) husband, who is a complete ass, and shows off his penis like some sort of creepy sexual predator. Again, this is a married man he's suppose to be playing. Besides him, Charlie Day had perhaps the funniest moment in the movie as a tour guide who goes suicidal during a Griswold canoeing trip, but then again this can easily upset some people in terms of his actions. Overall, the new Vacation is a big disappointment to any fan of the old 80s movies. It's not that it's "too modern", it's more of just that it tries way too hard to make people laugh. Not bad, but not great. A rather dull holiday road.
Saw it at Regal Gardens 1-6, fine presentation and audio, but the screen had some minor flickering, which was noticeable during previews, but sort of went away as the film started. Audio could of been a little louder too, specially since there's a lot of songs featured in the film.
Film: 2 stars out of 4
Presentation: 3 stars out of 4
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 08-10-2015 11:15 AM
I was looking forward to this one and wasn't terribly disappointed, mainly because I knew it would never be capable of coming as close to comic perfection as the original (or Christmas Vacation).
I was happy to see Ed Helms in the lead Griswold role, as I can't imagine any current actor fitting the role better than he is/was able to. The rest of the casting worked fine, although I wish the older son would've reversed the roles a bit more after a spoiler scene that I don't need to get into.
In other casting, Ron Livingston was great to see on the big screen again, although his comedy works best when he is the victim. The real treat though was seeing Chevy Chase on the screen again. It's sad to see him getting up there in age, but he still brings a smile to my face and this movie would not have been complete without his (unfortunately) short role. It's strange how Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo are in every Vacation movie, but everyone else is a new cast with each movie. The one exception to that is Randy Quaid who was in the original and Christmas Vacation. Oh how that would've been sweet if he could've been worked into this. Even the most uptight people out there laughed at his line "shitter's full".
This also has one of the best sequel trailer lines worked into the movie I think I've seen:
"I've never even heard of the original vacation."
"Doesn't matter. The new vacation will stand on it's own."
Unfortunately after watching the trailer it seems many of the best jokes were given away by it. That would have seriously damaged my enjoyment of the movie. These trailer editing guys really need to be stopped. I read the previous reviewer didn't get a kick out of the whole "he came in here just to show off his 6-pack" gag. Sure it was a crude joke, but it was pretty funny to the group of people I watched it with. Likewise the revised Christie Brinkley driving scene was ruined with the trailer and as a result of that the biggest laugh out of that entire scene came AFTER the "hit" when Helms looks in his rear view mirror.
If these trailers wouldn't give up so many gags in the movies, there would be better overall reviews for a movie, more people would want to come and see them AND more people would go back to the theaters for "double-dipping". Plus I truly believe it would help boost blu-ray sales afterwards because the viewers would walk away with more enjoyment of the film. But that's a discussion for another thread if someone wants to start one in the Yak forum. (Please not here in the review forum.)
There were some good gags overall, but my absolute favorite gag was the angry GPS. I'm not the kind of person who laughs out loud very often at movies, but that gag was just hilarious. (And it also wasn't in the trailer.) I so wish I could get that profile on my phone GPS. I would use it all the time!
3.5 out of 5
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-23-2015 11:22 PM
Finally got a chance to see this this week.
There's no topping the original, but this movie did have a few funny bits. There was way more "bad" than "good" in the movie though. Ed Helms was by far the best part of the movie - the supporting cast, not so much, except the two kids were quite funny, and Chris Hemsworth was goofy enough.
Aside from the fact that many of the best gags were spoiled by the trailers, the biggest problem, I thought, is that a lot of gags went on too long. Such as, the part where they Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
get busted for trying to have sex at the Four Corners
should have ended right when the cops started to escalate their argument.
I did think it was kind of cool that they took the exact same basic story but managed not to repeat any of the original humor situations from the first film. I wish there had been a couple of fun scenes with the Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
Wagon Queen Family Truckster
causing them problems - that was a missed opportunity there.
I have to say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, which for this movie I guess is high praise. Two out of five stars.
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