VACATION

Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo
Writers: Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley
Directors: John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein

Three decades after the original Vacation, which saw Clark Griswold embark on a road trip to Walley World theme park with wife Ellen, son Rusty and daughter Audrey, it's Rusty himself (Helms, looking NOTHING like the original Rusty Anthony Michael Hall in the photograph he views early on) who decides to recreate that very road trip in order to reconnect with his own family - wife Debbie (Applegate), sensitive, guitar-playing, journal writing son number one James (Gisondo) and problematic, foul-mouthed son number two Kevin (Steele Stebbins).

I'll freely admit I am a big fan of the original Vacation movie, which was a gloriously contrived excuse for gleefully mounted set-pieces of guffaw-inducing bad taste. The trailers for the new Vacation seemed to hint that it was cut from the same cloth, so I had absolutely no problem with that. The original had Holiday Road, that Lindsey Buckingham earworm, as its theme tune. The new Vacation has Holiday Road, that Lindsey Buckingham earworm, as its theme tune. Hey, if it ain't broke...

The original movie also had a fine performance from Chevy Chase, whose Clark Griswold was an essentially decent guy slowly being pushed closer and close to the edge of a total breakdown as his plans for the family holiday of a lifetime went up in smoke. To be fair there's more than a hint of that in Rusty's journey this time out and there's no question that Helms is an exceptionally talented comic actor but he's somewhat let down by the script which, for starters, doesn't give much of a hint as to whether there's anything of the mercurial Clark DNA struggling to shatter Rusty's patient persona.

In the original, you knew straight off the bat that Chase was only just holding it together and there were several minor tremors along the way before the chuffing great Chase earthquake of crazy hit towards the end. Here, Helms is saddled with a character that endures situations of varying embarrassment and humiliation without so much as a loss of temper. When he does eventually lose it (and it's a long, long time before he does), it's a dribble of petulance rather than an eruption of undiluted batshit insanity. Again, the script doesn't go nearly far enough, it's all far too careful and mannered and Helms deserves so much better.

In fact, it's the writing that generally sinks the massive amount of potential on show here. Christina Applegate can play it for laughs but save for a sequence at the sorority house she used to be a part of she's underused. Even said sorority sequence doesn't play out the way it could do, going initially for an obvious but amusing gross-out gag then not following through on it and cutting short the scene in an almost embarrassed fashion. Gisondo gets a better-written character than most but that also means that he's the butt of most gags rather the one driving them and a sub-plot involving a girl he meets is introduced, kicked around for a short while and then jettisoned in favour of getting the story to the finish line more quickly. Stebbins, as the sweary younger brother, is spectacularly annoying, proving that kids who drop the f-bomb at regular intervals are not only staggeringly unfunny but also surprisingly dull.

Another fine performer whose talents are squandered is Ron Livingston as a the pilot of a much swankier airline than the local carrier Rusty flies for. The opening of the movie sets up Livingston's arrogant flyboy as the perfect nemesis for our hero and then he promptly disappears from the action for almost the entire running time, eventually showing up at an unlikely moment about five minutes from the end of the film, at which point I didn't really care whether or not he was about to receive his comeuppance considering he hadn't exactly made Rusty's life a living hell other than jumping his place in a queue and making him wait for a later shuttle bus way, way, way back in the proceedings. Leslie Mann - funny lady, right? Given nothing to do here as the latest incarnation of Audrey Griswold. Michael Peña - hilarious in Ant-Man, right? Given nothing to do here - other than look an idiot - as a cop from New Mexico. And that's not the worst thing. Oh no.

What I'm building up to is my total and utter exasperation at by far the biggest waste of talent in this movie, which centres around the reintroduction of Clark and Ellen Griswold. At that point in the movie, my heart genuinely lifted. It was truly great to see Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo again and their appearances gave me that feeling of seeing old friends and, knowing what they could bring to the party, surely a slew of injury-causing gags would follow. The anticipation of all the comic contrivances that Rusty's parents could provide made me think that the film was really going to rally in its third act but no, a few minutes down the line and they've been shunted out of the way as well. You're kidding me, right? You've got Chevy Chase there and what do you do? Give him a couple of lines that hardly raise a smile and that's it? What the hell were you thinking?

So, does anyone make any impact whatsoever? Considering the kicking I've been giving this so far you might be surprised that my answer to that question is yes. Charlie Day wrings as many laughs as he can from his role as an outdoor activities guy who takes the Griswolds white water rafting immediately following a disastrous change in his relationship status. It's a shame we don't get to spend more time with him. Taking the prize for the guy who comes out of Vacation, reputation intact, having actually made me laugh out loud, is Chris Hemsworth as Audrey's other half Stone Crandall, a ridiculously well-endowed weather presenter whose star is on the rise in the world of local meteorological broadcasting and who enjoys manly pursuits such as farming cattle and riding quad bikes. Hemsworth sends up his chiselled, hunky image something rotten and he looks like he's having a great time doing it.

Vacation throws away the potential of its great cast, mainly because the writing just doesn't push the proceedings anywhere near as far as it should. There are funny and inventive moments - for instance, a sequence harking back to Christie Brinkley in the red Ferrari from the original which has an amusing, unexpected twist (mind you, if you saw the trailer that gag's ruined and it doesn't repeat particularly well) - but they're few and far between. The rest of it's unrelentingly average and, for me, a thumping disappointment. Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein really should have a had a word with scriptwriters Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley....oh.