Why Vacation, the modern reboot of Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon Vacation, deserves one star

REVIEW: While taking its cues from Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon Vacation hits, not even Chris Hemsworth can save Vacation which also has a crap-tabulous last-act.

Vacation (MA15+)

Directors: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Chris Hemsworth, Chevy Chase.

Rating: *

VACATION (MA15+) Comedy a last resort too far away

While taking its cues (and half-heartedly lifting many of the same-ish gags) from Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon Vacation hits of the 1980s, this Vacation is no holiday for fans of the franchise.

Not so much a sequel as a reboot completely bereft of any kick whatsoever, Vacation sends a new iteration of the goofy Griswold family on yet another doomed, cross-country odyssey to that cursed theme park Walley World.

Christina Applegate, standing from left, Ed Helms, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Skyler Gisondo, kneeling left, and Steele Stebbins in Vacation. Picture: Warner Bros

En route, dimwit dad Rusty (Ed Helms), his slightly with-it wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and their completely-without-it sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins) stick to a collision course with every D-grade dirty joke in the book.

While there are thin slivers of humour that pass muster if you’re either very forgiving or heavily medicated, these fluky laughs are far out-weighed by thick slabs of gormless groaners that can crush the will to live.

Christina Applegate, left, as Debbie Griswold, and Ed Helms as Rusty Griswold in Vacation. Picture: Warner Bros

Then there’s the running jokes about a sweet little kid who swears like a dirty old man, Rusty being mistaken for a dirty old man, and icky stuff that would make dirty old men everywhere blush (strange clumps of hair in bathtubs! random holes in toilet walls! Chris Hemsworth in a state of arousal you can see from the moon!).

Chris Hemsworth appears in a scene from Vacation. Picture: Warner Bros

If you think the sequence where the Griswolds take a family swim in a lagoon of raw sewage is the absolute low point, you are wrong.

Against all odds, a crap-tabulous last-act cameo from franchise figurehead Chevy Chase drills past the bottom of the barrel and heads for the earth’s core itself.

Originally published as Why Vacation, the modern reboot of Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon Vacation, deserves one star