By Cynthia Ayala

Rusty Griswold, the youngest child from 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation is all grown up with a family of his own and fond childhood memories of a certain family road trip to Walley World, “America’s Favorite Family Fun Park.” Like his father, Clark, Rusty wants to forge closer bonds with his own family – wife Debbie and boys James and Kevin – so he buys a souped-up Albanian van and convinces them to set off on their own crazy cross-country jaunt to Walley World.

—Erin Demers, Rovi

Fans of the original never fear, Vacation had all the wit and charm of the originals and was pure hilarity.

Ed Helms stars alongside Christina Applegate in this fun filled and ridiculous film that isn’t (thankfully) a reboot of the original. This is a whole new generation following his son Rusty as he ventures on an ill-fated Road Trip with his family to Wally World. If you were a fan of the original, just imagine how disastrous this film is going to be.

While many critics say that this movie lacks the charm of the originals, I have to disagree. This film, while admittedly a little more raunchy, has the charm due to the acting. Ed Helms is great for this film because he has that natural fun loving charisma and madness to him that made him a great character on The Office. He was able to tap into the original, into just what the original had in mind as far as creating humor. What’s more, is while the movie made many illusions to the original, the film did it in such a way that it wasn’t a cop-out, they were paying homage to the original. And each of them was expertly done in order to make it hilarious and even more modern.

The big issue with the film is probably the sibling bullying. It wasn’t charming in the least and the bullying was extreme and violent. That was not something that the film needed. The writers could have come up with something better but the younger brother, while he played his part well, was a punk that no one could really even like in the audiences. The writers could have done such a better job of writing the sibling dynamic and instead relied on cheap tactics to build their off-kilter dynamic. Thankfully, though, they had chemistry with one another so at least there was that.

Over a though, they acting was amazing, they had the dynamic and the chemistry to pull of being a family, tapping in to the original Griswold insanity to make this a fun film that fans of the original will love and one that new fans can thoroughly enjoy. (★★★☆ | B+)

– Film Credits –

Directed by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley

Written by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley

Based on Characters by John Hughes

Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Chris Hemsworth, Leslie Mann, Chevy Chase & Beverly D’Angelo

Genre | Rating | Length: Comedy, Adventure | R | 1 hr. 39 min.

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures