Vacation (DVD REVIEW)
Vacation
DVD
Review
by Kam Williams
Revival of Irreverent Road Trip Franchise Released on Home Video
National
Lampoon's Vacation is an enduring film franchise launched back in
1978 by the late John Hughes, the brains behind such Chicago-centric
screen classics as Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Trains, Planes &
Automobiles; Home Alone; Uncle Buck; and Baby's Day Out, to name a
few. The original Vacation adventure featured the Griswold family's
very eventful road trip from the Windy City to L.A.
This
nostalgic seventh installment not only resurrects Walley
World amusement park as its destination point,
but has Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprising their
iconic roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold, respectively. However, they
couple's been reduced to a cameo appearance in favor of a plot
revolving around their son Rusty's (Ed Helms) nuclear family.
At the
point of departure, we find Rusty sorely in need of a break from the
rat race as an overworked pilot for a budget airline carrier. He
plans to both spice up his stale marriage and spend some quality time
with his sons during the drive across the country. Of course, the
highway gods have other ideas in mind, as the perils laying in wait
range from robbery to raw sewage.
My biggest
problem with this relatively-salacious episode rests in its obsession
with sexuality, and often in offensive fashion. For example, when
younger son Kevin (Steele Stebbins)
asks, “Dad, what's a pedophile?” he is inappropriately informed
that “It's when a man and a boy love each other very much.” It
doesn't help that the kid subsequently encounters a “glory hole”
in a rest stop bathroom ostensibly cruised by gay men.
There is
also a homophobic tone cast over the entire picture, coming courtesy
of Kevin's relentless bullying of his effeminate big brother, James
(Skyler Gisondo). The mean-spirited mistreatment includes teasing his
sibling about having a vagina and choking him with a plastic bag.
Even the boy's father piles on periodically, like when he suggests
that Kevin scratches like a girl when he fights instead of punching.
Rusty's wife Debbie (Christina
Applegate) isn't much of a role model either, between
over-imbibing in a “Chug Run” during a pit stop and 'fessing up
about having developed a bad reputation in college for showing her
breasts to anybody who asked.
From
full-frontal male nudity to an F-word laced theme song, Vacation is a
cringe-inducing disappointment that bears little resemblance to the
original it so desperately endeavors to pay homage to.
Fair (1
star)
Rated R
for brief male frontal nudity, sexuality, crude humor, mature themes
and pervasive profanity
Running time: 99 minutes
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