When you’ve got a dream to take your family (or yourself) to Wally World (or a raunchy summer comedy at 10 o’clock in the evening), never let that go. Or let it go just once, because you’re tired and the weekend is better for seeing movies anyway.
Advice taken, Mr. Griswold.
The original Vacation, starring Chevy Chase as the earnest and oafish Clark Griswold and Beverly D’Angelo as his excellent straight woman wife, Helen, is, quite frankly, one of the best comedy films in the history of American cinema. The saga of the Griswold clan as they travel through 2,000 miles of existential hell is still, to this day, laugh out loud funny (and that computer Clark plans their trip with? Watching that scene on Blu-Ray in 2015 is a bit of a mind melter). It is that classic which the new Vacation, borrowing the same title, seeks to both pay tribute to and emulate.
It succeeds, but only partially, on both counts.