Dull comedy on repeat in remake of Vacation [Review]
The 1983 remake barely inspires a titter and goes too far in some places
Rusty Griswold takes his family on a cross-country trip to the Walley World theme park in a remake of the 1983 comedy, Vacation.
Things go wrong. The family smashes into a cow; they accidentally bathe in poop; they even set the GPS to scream at them in Korean.
Rusty, played by Ed Helms, does the clueless dad schtick well.
But the best surprises come from the back seat of the car. Whereas the original had a brother and sister, this time we've got two boys. The twist is that the younger, Kevin (Steele Stebbins), is the alpha, and is constantly bullying his sweeter older brother James (Skyler Gisondo).
It starts out with name calling, but leads to some dark places, such as a repeated gag where Kevin manically tries to smother James with a plastic bag. It's one of a number of jokes, but some might say that this goes too far.
The sad thing is that this movie still isn't funny or shocking enough to stand out.
The huge number of remakes on our screens right now says a lot about our repetitive culture, and it would be nice if Hollywood could offer us something new.