‘Vacation’ Review: Slightly Amusing With the ‘Conventional’ Foul Language and Inappropriate Antics

Increasingly, the big screens are being filled with less thought-provoking movies these days—as more offensive words and antics lead in the world of mainstream cinema.

And even though ‘Vacation’ was not as foul as TED 2 to my co-reviewer and conservative fiancée, you can pigeonhole it as terribly offensive and less humorous as it had a central child throwing out many swear words throughout the movie.

Perhaps, modern comedy has gotten to the stage where you cannot do without foul language and certain inappropriate antics—and film makers seem to be wrongly interchanging wit for insolent.

Off the back of Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo infamous decision to take their family across the US to “America’s Favourite Family Fun Park” in National Lampoon’s Vacation, Ed Helms (who plays Rusty, a domestic flight pilot), now a middle aged son of Chevy decides to give his wife and two children that ‘wonderful’ experience in ‘Vacation’.

Married to hanging-in-there-Debbie ( played by Christina Applegate), Rusty managed to convince Debbie and his two sons James (played by Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (played by Steele Stebbins) to go on a family road trip to Walley World theme park—promising them a wonderful experience just as he had with his parents when he was young.

It’s this long road trip to Walley World theme park that puts the film on it wheels—the family conversations were every so often funny but if you have a problem with a child being unable to construct a full sentence without swearing, then surely you wouldn’t even find the family chats amusing.

James, the younger brother of Kevin kept throwing out words far inappropriate for his age—and he couldn’t stop terrorizing the calm Kevin until latter part of the movie when he was taught a little lesson.

James’ reoccurring foul language which sometimes were met with similar ‘jabs’ from his parents would have maintained their comedy punch lines if they were infrequent, a little more controlled. But the fact that almost each sentence had it was a push beyond the border.

Despite this and a few foul antics, ‘Vacation’ had some real funny scenes which make it not a complete waste of your 90 minutes. From sewage infested hot spring that the family ‘smartly’ took advantage of to a somewhat maniac stalking truck driver, the film would leave you with some genuine laughter.

Even beyond these, an attempt by Debbie and husband-Rusty to inject some kinkiness into their ‘dying’ marriage turned extremely funny when they met a long queue filled by similar disease suffering couples—following which a Four Corners police brawl took over.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kleG7XCqOb4

At Rusty’s super-successful brother-in-law’s mansion, the film had its epic laughs and shocks.

For such a long movie, the lost of plot towards the ending was inevitable—and when we thought it was all about to end, Rusty pushed his family to the end of the rope, to Walley World theme park.

At this stage, the comedy had dried up and as such, the writers-Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley thought that two families punching each other in the face was pretty funny—and we were served that.

As a sort of a follow up film, ‘Vacation’ makes some interesting references to its predecessor, capable of pushing you to want to see that.

Ed Helms and Christina had a great on-screen chemistry—so you shouldn’t totally rule the movie out.

Critics’ Rating:

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