Saturday, 18 September 2021 19:57

Vacation






VACATION

US, 2015, 99 minutes, Colour.
Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, Steel Stebbins, Chris Hemsworth, Leslie Mann, Chevy Chase, Beverly D' Angelo, Charlie Day, Catherine Missal, Ron Livingston, Norman Reedus, Keegan- Michael Key, Regina Hall, Michael Pena, David Clennon, Colin Hanks.
Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan M.Goldstein.

If you are looking for intelligent comedy, this is not the place!

Back then, there was the humorous and satiric magazine, National Lampoon, probably best known for the film version of Animal House in the late 1970s. Then there were all kinds of Lampoon’s at the movies. One of the areas was vacation, both in the good old US, and at Christmas, as well as to Europe. And in those films, National Lampoon’s Vacation, the central characters were Mr and Mrs Griswold and their two children. The Griswold were played by Chevy Chase and Beverly D’ Angelo. The films were amusing in their way, lots of pratfalls, lots of awkward situations, touches of the vulgar, but acceptable enough for audiences in the 1980s and 1990s.

Vacation is not exactly a sequel or a remake – rather, this is the younger generation, the young boy of the old Vacation is now 40ish and has an idea that he should get his family to share in a nostalgical trip in his memory of his parents’ taking him and his sister to the theme park, Wally World. So far, so good.

The film is full of reminders of the past, this time with Ed Helms and Christina Applegate as the parents, with photos of the old parents – and, lo and behold, the new generation coming to San Francisco to stay with Rusty’s mother and father. It must be a long time since Chevy Chase was on screen because he is surprisingly older-looking than what we might have expected, larger, white hair (what the result it) but Beverly D’ Angelo looking an older version of what she used to look like.

Once again, there are all kinds of awkward situations, slapstick, pratfalls, misunderstandings and misinterpretations – but!!! This is 2015 so no-holds-barred for four letter interventions, even from the younger Griswold boy. There is no inhibition on sex language, sex talk, sex jokes – a step beyond the risque. Admittedly, some of this is funny, depending on your sex joke tolerance. And bodily functions are not left out – and seeing is believing when the family skip a queue lining up for hot springs in Arkansas, only to be maliciously advised to go on the back road, where the mud in the hot spring is not what we or the family expected because it is… (supply four letters).

Rusty is a pilot on an economy air company, Economair, with some comic touches that remind us of Aeroplane/Flying High. Debbie is at home trying to manage the two boys, the younger is murderably precocious, bullies his sensitive older brother who writes diaries and poetry, is not into fighting, and is at the stage of eyeing girls and becoming romantically infatuated.

Rusty hires an Albanian they had – which gives rise to a lot of slapstick jokes. There is an ominous truck driver with the final confrontation in the Arizona desert. They stop off in Missouri to go to Debbie’s old college where she finds she has a reputation for rather wild days – with some slapstick disasters as she tries to relive her past. There is an occasion where they sneak out to make love on the corner where force states meet, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Arizona – only to find a long queue already there and police representatives from each of the State who start to assert their authority and draw their guns. And the jokey guide at the Grand Canyon goes suicidal during the white water rafting.

After they are robbed at the hot springs, they drive to Rusty’s sister’s place. The sister’s husband, is Stone Crandall, is played by Thor himself, obviously relishing the opportunity to do something American, something comic, something dumb, something which highlights macho prowess (and a large prosthetic appendage). The couple are played by Lesley Mann and Chris Hemsworth.

Yes, there is a lot of soul-searching, the younger brother put in his place, the older brother experiences the touch of romance, a reconciliation between husband and wife who appreciate better what they have – and a visit to Wally World and the biggest and longest rollercoasters (and amusing pratfalls).

There are cameos from Colin Hanks, Ron Livingston, Norman Reedus, Michael Pena and Charlie Day – all getting a bit of extra pocket money!

Perhaps it is best to say that this is American comedy, for the multiplex audience, and its status in 2015, styles of comedy, visual and verbal, raucous and coarse, – and the memory that the earlier Griswold’s also had a European vacation, so…