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Vacation (2015)
Out of all the reboots and remakes being made today, a reboot of the National Lampoon's Vacation series is one that I would never expect to need a reboot. I love the original Vacation series, even the ill-received Vegas Vacation, and even though I had low expectations for the newest installment in the series, I was looking forward to a new Vacation movie. Boy was this a letdown. This time around, Rusty decides that he is going to take his family to Walley World before it closes forever, and Rusty promises that this time "will be different" than the first time he went to Walley World. They set off in their bizarre European car to the amusement park, and the usual Griswold madness ensues. While there are a couple of laughs to be found on this trip to Walley World, the new Vacation is just a raunchier and much more mean-spirited version of the original film, making for a rather awkward and sometimes even unpleasant viewing. A lot of the humor in the first movie was dramatic rather than situational. The jokes would happen while the scene played normally, rather than having scenes that only existed for the punch-line. It more closely resembles Adam Sandler's fun yet disappointing Grown Ups than any of the first Vacation movies. Probably the worst thing about this movie was that, in the first movie, Clark made it seem like Walley World was the greatest place on Earth, so there was a sense of urgency on the trip there, and it made us feel some sympathy for the Griswold's whenever something bad happened to them on the way. In this movie, the destination is never made out to be some spectacular place, which really didn't make me feel like it was that big of a deal when the Griswolds found themselves in a pool of human waste or going white water rafting with a suicidal tour guide. The new Vacation is much more of a misfire than a disaster, since it is a fun movie at times, but you won't find much to like about this movie, even if you're a die-hard fan of the other Vacation films.
4/10
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