The remake to the timeless classics of films that mirrored many of our own family vacation nightmares, is a tragedy that further cements why i feel remakes should only be done for terrible originals. The 1981 classic ‘Vacation’ is one of my all time favorite comedies. People are split on the sequels, but the one thing we can all agree on is that none of them are remotely as bad as this juvenille remake that degrades the original films. Ed Helms stars in the reboot of the Vacation film series as Rusty Griswald, the son of Chevy Chase’s iconic character of the original four films. In the film, he takes his two sons and his on-the-fence wife (Christina Applegate) on a cross country trip to Wally World to try to recreate some of the magic from his own childhood vacation. I have seen plenty of bad films this year, but none of which made me nearly as angry as this movie did. I believe it’s because of how much of my personal enjoyment was involved with the original films that maybe i was expecting a little bit of that with this movie. Boy was i wrong. Any semblence of identity for this film to flourish just a taste of that magic is gone. In fact, never does this film ever feel like a Vacation movie, even including when the Griswold name is mentioned. This is a shameless cash grab on a nostalgic film that people will still take two hours out of their day to watch when it’s on AMC or any other cable station. Helms is terrible as the film’s protagonist and longtime character of the series. He is shooting for a Chevy Chase kind of personality here, but it’s just not believable and feels forced because Rusty was never this braindead to begin with. It has always been a re-occuring joke in this series to have different looking actors playing the same character, but it takes away any believability with said character when he does a complete 180 amnesia style change in personality. The trip itself is barely funny, with the exception of some scenes that were already shown in the revealing trailer. The vacation itself is kind of put on the back burner for a game of how this family can get into even more trouble. Was this a stable in the other films? YES, but they worked because they never needed slapstick style comedy or gross out humor to get their message across. The children are so unlikeable in their constant bickering, as well as containment for a stereotype that never lets them leave that bubble. One of the kids is a wimp, so he gets bullied on by his younger brother, and the younger brother is a constant above normal jerk who does more harm than comedy to his character. I couldn’t stand 93 minutes in a car with these characters, let alone an entire cross country trip. There are some nice cameos in the film from A-listers in the current Hollywood shuffle, as well as a couple of Vacation alums, and maybe with a better script, their screen time could’ve meant something more than just a pity giggle when they are first shown on screen. The best part to the film for me is the opening credits, with the iconic ‘Holiday Road’ by Lindsay Buckingham, musically narrating us through random family vacation disaster photos. It’s sad that the film peaks in these opening five minutes, but trust me when i say it’s all a downhill slope from here. It’s an unfunny and uninteresting mess that feels like it was written by a thirteen year old. Congratulations to New Line Cinema for successfully alienating us from the most personable and hilarious family to ever grace the big screen. Onto the next franchise to ruin from my childhood.

3/10