One of the hardest parts when it comes to writing movie reviews for a newspaper is the word limit.
Usually a movie will make me feel something. For instance, this year’s “Paper Towns” was a surprisingly great movie that I could easily have written 1500 words on. Last week’s “Pixels” was so repulsively feculent that my fellow reviewer Brett Maciech did write 1500 words on it (check out his scathing review at uwbrandingiron.com). However, when walking out of “Vacation,” I felt nothing. So for once, coming in under my 500 word limit will be a piece of cake.
Every movie genre has some problem that keeps turning up in every film. Horror movies have the jump-scare. Comic book movies have undeveloped villains. Action movies have Michael Bay. This year, “Vacation” embodies everything that can go wrong in comedy movies today: It is simply not clever.
Having said that, it may surprise you when I say that “Vacation” is not a bad film. In fact for some people, it may be just right. Looking for a date night movie? Maybe you got off work early and you are looking for something to do? Go see “Vacation.” It is a perfectly accessible film (so long as you’re not a prude that can’t handle some curse words and sex jokes).
But this film’s accessibility is also its greatest downfall. It relies solely on tried-and-true jokes. Everything that this movie has done, something else has already done better. Including being a National Lampoon’s Vacation film (for those of you that don’t know, this film is a sequel to the Chevy Chase films of the 80s). I mean, the movie is a road trip film. It cannot get more rote than that.
Moreover, the characters in this film are simply uninteresting. There is no soul, nor reality that exists within the “Vacation” world. The characters come off less like exaggerated versions of people and more like caricatures drawn in crayon by blind aliens. Sure, often times reality is played with when trying to be funny. But when done well, there is still truth in comedy.
As always, Ed Helms is adorable in this film. He had great on-screen chemistry with co-star Christina Applegate, and their performances made up for an otherwise stale script. There are also a number of great, albeit short-lived cameos. In fact, some of the cameos were so funny, that it felt like a chore when the movie returned to focusing on the two most unlikable children in the history of cinema (counting Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker).
The sad thing is that “Vacation” doesn’t even manage to stay true to its ending moral that (spoiler) the journey sucks and the destination reminds you why it was worth it (haha, classic reversal, give this movie the Oscar, haha). In “Vacation” neither the journey nor the destination are worth it.
Frankly, “Vacation” is as shallow as they come. It is simply going through the motions, like writing a review to 500 words exactly.
