Vacation (0/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 99 minutes.

Not for children.

For me, the most infuriating thing about rotten movies like this is how insulting they are. It’s as if the writer, director, and actors, are saying, “Are you stupid enough to laugh at this?” Then, “how about this?” Each alleged gag gets more and more imbecilic so that by the end of the film you are furious at being treated like a nincompoop.

This films starts with the opening titles with an offensive shot of a man in a state of sexual excitement. I leaned to my assistant, who is a big fan of the 1983 Chevy Chase Vacation, and asked, “Do you really want to stay for this?” This was after less than 30 seconds.

It got worse. When the film started one of the gags was that Ed Helms’ youngest son (of two) kept making fun of his older brother, accusing him of having a female body part. The older brother didn’t, but the gag kept coming up throughout the film and Helms tolerated it.

This film has one offensive scene after another piled on top of one another. There are sexual themes that aren’t the least bit funny. Naturally there are vomiting scenes that aren’t funny, bathroom scenes that aren’t funny, the list goes on and on and on.

The acting is intolerable, especially Helms, but then he was also a part of the last two Hangover films that epitomized the depths to which movie making can sink. But this one is worse than both of those. With a script like this, it’s difficult to blame the actors, except that they could have said “no” after reading the script, so much of the blame must fall on their shoulders.

Some films are horrible but often have one or two things in them that are tolerable. Not this thing. This film is an absolute total disgrace without one redeeming second.