The long-awaited reboot/sequel to a classic ’80s comedy series, it would be easy to view “Vacation” as a disaster-in-waiting, a bad idea from the start that is doomed to become an exercise in false nostalgia that, with or without the flickering star power of Chevy Chase, would be as much a disappointment as, say, “Vegas Vacation” was so many years ago.
Ed Helms takes the lead as Rusty Griswold, the now-grown son of Clark W., who is now an adult with a family of his own. They are certainly going all out, bringing in co-stars like Christina Applegate as Rusty’s wife, Leslie Mann as Rusty’s sister Audrey, and Chris Hemsworth–Thor himself–as Audrey’s handsome and well-endowed husband.
In trailers Helms seems to be doing his version of Chase’s earnest family man schtick (which is more or less his forte anyway), so if anyone can pull this off, it’s him.
However, the question has to be raised: can anyone pull it off? Like many revived franchises that have resulted in rank disappointment, “Vacation” may be one of those franchises where we ask if we might be better off just revisiting the classics rather than trying to revisit them in modern times, where our ideas of the family unit are a bit different.
The discussion is worth having, but is moot to a degree at this point since the movie has been made, and all we can do is assume Rusty, who through the series has been one of the straight men to his dad, would grow up to share his Norman Rockwell family fantasies? Does the age of cell phones, tablets, and ear buds spark that desire for a sweaty cross-country car trip to the amusement park?
Eh, let’s just see it and find out.
