Vacation (2015)

I remember seeing the trailer to Vacation like it was yesterday. To be honest, I only remember Chris Hemsworth's huge bulge which is the reason the movie ended up on my watchlist. Three years later, I finally watched this, and it was glorious. I'm still talking about Hemsworth's (prosthetic) penis though. 

Fifth instalment of the Vacation series, the film follows Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) as he takes his wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate), and their two sons, James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins), on a road trip to Walley World, an amusement park, just like he did with his parents and sister when he was a kid. And everything goes wrong, of course. 

Just like in the only other movie of the Vacation series I've seen, it being Christmas Vacation, the plot is very thin, clichéd and beyond predictable. Unlike Christmas Vacation though, the situations that play out aren't that funny, the film doesn't really have a focus and the many subplots, specifically the romance involving James, aren't as explored as they should have. 

Another problem with Vacation is the characters. They are so flat and bland, it's impossible to root or care for them, the only exception maybe being James, Rusty's awkward, nerdy teenage son who is constantly bullied by his foul-mouthed kid brother Kevin, who, by the way, is the most annoying and obnoxious character in the film and perhaps one of the most annoying characters ever. I was genuinely hoping something bad would happen to him, or that James would kick his ass. Non-spoiler alert, nothing bad happens to the kid. 

The cast doesn't go beyond decent. Ed Helms is a funny guy, but he is no Chevy Chase; Christina Applegate isn't terrible but she isn't that great either --she is very likeable but at the same time she lacks charm and is boring. Also, the chemistry between them feels off; Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins are good-ish respectively as James and Kevin; Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo make a cameo but unfortunately it feels forced as they are underused; Chris Hemsworth, on the other hand, absolutely kills it as Rusty's brother-in-law, Stone. Not only he is a feast for the eyes, but he is pretty funny too.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The problem is that, when Hemsworth is not around which is most of the film, the humour barely works. It's the kind of raunchy, crude, sexual humour one would expect from a movie like this, but the cast does a poor job at delivering it and most of the time it falls flat. There are some funny moments, but you can count those on the fingers of one hand.