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Arts & Entertainment Film Review: One ‘Vacation’ You Don’t Want to Take By Kam Williams For The Skanner News N ational Lampoon’s Vacation is an en- during film fran- chise launched back in 1978 by the late John Hughes, the brains behind such Chica- go-centric screen classics as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains & Automo- biles, 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 in- stallment 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, respec- tively. However, the cou- ple’s been reduced to a cam- eo appearance in favor of a plot revolving around their son Rusty’s (Ed Helms) nu- clear 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 lying in wait range from robbery to raw sewage. My biggest problem with this relatively-salacious ep- isode rests in its often-of- fensive obsession with sex- uality. For example, when younger son Kevin (Steele Stebbins) asks, “Dad, what’s a pedophile?” he is inappropriately informed, “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 a homophobic tone cast over the entire picture, notably present in Kevin’s relentless bullying of his effeminate big broth- er, James (Skyler Gisondo). The mean-spirited mistreat- ment includes teasing his sibling about “having a va- gina” and choking him with a plastic bag. Even the boy’s father piles on periodically, like when he suggests that Kevin Chevy Chase (second from right) and Beverly D’Angelo (right) reprise their original roles in Vacation, the seventh outing in the franchise that started in 1978. The new film stars Christina Applegate (left), Ed Helms (second from left, as grown-up Rusty), Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins. scratches “like a girl” when he fights. Rusty’s wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) isn’t much of a role model either, between overimbibing in a “Chug Run” during a pit stop and ‘fessing up about having developed a bad rep- utation in college for show- ing her breasts to anybody who asked. From full-fron- tal male nudity to an F-word laced theme song, Vacation is a cringe-inducing disap- pointment that bears little resemblance to the original it so desperately endeavors to pay homage to. Fair H Rated R for brief male fron- tal nudity, sexuality, crude humor, mature themes and pervasive profanity Running time: 99 minutes Distributor: Warner Broth- ers Pictures View movie trailers at TheSkanner.com July 29, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 7
