Wretched revival of the comedy franchise that began with
1983's "National Lampoon's Vacation." In an effort to shake
up his family's summer routine, the now-grown son (Ed Helms)
of the original outing embarks with his wife (Christina
Applegate) and quarrelsome kids (Skyler Gisondo and Steele
Stebbins) on a road trip to the same California amusement
park that served as the destination for that long-ago initial
journey. While the clan's travels are beset by a variety of
disasters, the real calamity befalls viewers who find
themselves dragged along on a forced march through a
landscape of tastelessness unrelieved by laughs. Co-writers
and -directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley try
to disguise their steamy material by cloaking it in family
values, including the parents' shared commitment to
maintaining the vibrancy of their marriage. But scenes of
enthusiastic exhibitionism, together with obscenities uttered
by a child and jokes about AIDS and pedophilia, make the
underlying rot unmistakable.
Watch out for: Pervasive sexual and extreme
scatological humor, frontal male and upper female nudity,
about a half-dozen uses of profanity, constant rough and
crude language.
Rated: O, morally offensive; MPAA: R, restricted.
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
© Arlington Catholic Herald 2015