We all have favorite movies that we watch over and over again. They’re comfortable and reliable; we always know what we’re going to get. So what’s wrong with producing a reboot, remake or sequel as long as it provides the same effect? This theory has sure been tested this summer: Mad Max Fury Road and Jurassic World proved it can work, but Terminator Genisys proved it’s not always a sure thing.
Now comes Vacation, which may be the best example yet of this new hybrid of reboot/remake/sequel. It’s a reboot because it kickstarts a potential new franchise. It’s a remake because the plot, story and structure are nearly identical to the original National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983). And it’s a sequel because the characters are grown-up versions of the children in the original. What can we call this, a “rebakquel?”
What a rebakquel must not do is respect the original so much that it overpowers its attempts to make the material fresh and relevant. Vacation faces this potential problem head on. It becomes meta when Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) makes a hilarious rant to his family about his/the “original vacation” and their/this “new vacation.” Afterwards, one of his sons exclaims, “I’ve never heard of the original vacation.”
What a rebakquel absolutely must do is stand on its own. It must work within its respective genre: an action rebakquel must be thrilling, a horror rebakquel must be scary, and a comedy rebakquel must be funny. Vacation stands on its own; the nods to the original induce smiles whether you’ve seen it or not. And it’s funny, perhaps not as consistently as Trainwreck; however, when it makes a good joke, it’s side-splitting.
The biggest laughs come from the car the Griswolds use for their road trip from Chicago to California to recreate Rusty’s family vacation to Wally World 32 years prior. It’s a character itself. The 2015 Tartan Prancer (the Honda of Albania) comes with a large remote control that has a multitude of buttons, each one identified with a small icon that in no way describes the action the car will take. (Let’s not push the swastika.)
In this Vacation, the trip begins later in the movie than it did in the original, allowing for backstory and character development. The screenplay by Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Horrible Bosses), who also directed, tries awfully hard to provide a purpose for the family bonding experience, particularly between the two sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins). It’s a respectable effort, but doesn’t work quite as well as the humor.
What we really want to see are the slapstick hijinks of the awkward father who means well as he desperately tries to woo a wife (Christina Applegate) whom he fears is falling out of love with him. Helms’s Rusty is less certain of himself than Chase’s Clark in the original Vacation. Both men mean well in their respective movies, but while Helms isn’t quite the comedian that Chase was in 1983, he’s a more sympathetic character in 2015.
Speaking of Chase, he and Beverly D’Angelo make a cameo appearance late in the movie. It’s easily the worst, most unfunny part of the movie and could have been omitted. Perhaps that’s one more evolutionary step the rebakquel needs to make. When the movie is funny enough and strong enough to stand on its own, let it. This Vacation is and can. It’s not perfect (neither was the original if you’re being honest), but it is perfectly fine.
