I went to see the new Vacation movie… the continuation of the National Lampoons Vacation movies. It’s not a remake – Ed Helms plays Rusty Griswold (the kid from the movie) who wants to take his wife (Christina Applegate) and their two boys to Wallyworld… it won’t be exactly like the old Vacation, Ed Helms insists. This is an all new vacation. “I haven’t even heard of the old vacation,” one of the boys replies in a way that is meta (yes, the movie says, most of the audience will not have heard of the old movie).
Anyhow, this movie is getting savaged by critics and I came away having had fun with the movie. Yes. I smiled my way through it and laughed at a not a small number of jokes. It’s a big cartoon and an excuse to have road trip vignettes but I still found myself smiling along. Yes, a lot of it is rude and crude humor but lets not put the original movie on a pedestal… it was hardly good clean fun. But make no mistake, this is an R rated comedy.
But, yeah, humor is very subjective and there’s a good chance I’m just a sucker and the movie really is terrible. All I can report is that I had fun with it. Not at all the best comedy of the year… but fun.
Score 82