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| Directed and Written by John Francis Daley and Johnathan M. Goldstein |
Well, I didn't see that coming. As I've said before, I'm absolutely sick of studios taking any IP that was remotely popular at any point from the late seventies to the turn of the millennium, and repackaging it for effect. But even I'll admit that you can sometimes get a pretty good final product. Tron: Legacy is a pretty good action movie, the new Star Wars looks pretty amazing, the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to impress, for every Pixels there can still be a Lego Movie to balance things out.
So color me impressed that the decades later sequel/reboot of National Lampoon's Family Vacation is not only good, not only great, but it might just be one of the best comedies in recent memory. It ventures into Lord/Miller surreal meta-humor territory, and Vacation is fortunately smart enough to get that those two mad geniuses only made the Jump Street movies work because they can do meta-humor without becoming self-absorbed reference machines in the process. Because of that, even if you aren't familiar with the original (Why not? It's great.) both you and those that are will be having "[So] much fun you'll be whistling zip-a-dee-doo-dah out of your asses."
It's been several decades since the "original vacation", and Rusty Griswold has grown up, gotten a job as an airline pilot, and has a family of his own, his wife Debbie, his hipster son James, and a foul-mouthed little half-pint named Kevin. After finding out that Debbie hates the little cabin they go to every year, Rusty follows in his father's footsteps by going on an ill advised impromptu cross-country trip to Walley World. Everyone else thinks this is a terrible idea, his kids tell him that "They've never even heard of the original vacation.", so he tries to sell them on it by promising that there's a brand new totes' amazing new roller coaster there, and their new car has all sorts of new features (most of which have hilariously nonsensical uses) and they all agree that only the nostalgic fanboy actually wants to go there, but he ultimately forces them to go anyways.
That's where, if Vacation has any point other than to make the audience laugh, it comes across best. Going back to Walley World represents the rehashing of late-20th Century IP, and it works with flying colors. That's not to say it's the best part or the dominant feature of the movie, it's definitely Lord/Miller Lite, and it'll definitely sail over the heads of most of the people watching it, but if you do get it, it's hilarious.
Fortunately, the rest of the movie is hilarious too. The screenplay makes good use of the wide diversity of places that the Griswolds stop at on their way to Walley World, it lets in all sorts of colorful supporting characters, special attention has to be paid to Chris Hemsworth playing an arrogant Texan' ladies man that looks like he jumped right off the cover of a trashy paperback romance novel, and to say any more would probably spoil the jokes - which come at a pace of one super solid gut-buster every few minutes.
If Vacation isn't the comedy classic that the original is, that's only because the original is that, but Vacation is still easily the most fun I've had in a theater in a while, definitely worth seeing.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
FINAL RATING: 5/5
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