Vacation (2015) Directed by John Francis Daley, Jonathan M. Goldstein. Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo. IMDB says: “Rusty Griswold takes his own family on a road trip to “Walley World” in order to spice things up with his wife and reconnect with his sons.”

1983’s Vacation is in undisputed comedy classic. It gave us the Middle American Griswold family and introduced us to the first of their many glorious, disaster-laden vacations. Vacation is one of my favorite in the film series (right under Christmas Vacation) so I’m sure I wasn’t the only one squirming in my seat when I heard the inevitable news that a remake was in the works.

I often start my reviews with my personal back story on the film, like what I knew about it before watching it, if I’m familiar with the source material it’s based on, etc. Now I’m finding that with increasing regularity I have to mention that a movie is a reboot or a remake or a retooling or a reimaging which is funny considering the prefix “re” actually means “again” or “again and again” to indicate repetition. So 9 times out of 10 these “re” movies are usually doomed, especially in the critical sense. I try my hardest to separate films and judge them on their individual merits but isn’t it close to impossible to do that? Doesn’t the lone fact that you’re adapting a property automatically open the new work up for comparison? The writers of 2015’s Vacation film know this. When grown up Rusty Griswold decides to recreate his childhood trip to Wally World with his family, they are not into it. Rusty’s teenage son says “I’ve never even heard of the original vacation.” To which Rus responds “This is a new vacation. It’s different. This vacation will stand on its own.” It’s a cute wink to the audience albeit not entirely true.

This vacation does find us at a similar crossroads for the Griswold patriarch. Rusty’s job as a pilot is less than glamorous and it seems like his marriage and family time haven’t been up to par either. After overhearing that his wife hates the routine family vacation they normally take to the lake house, Rus decides to mix things up and goes back to that insane vacation from his formative years for inspiration. The rest of the movie is a similar snowballing of calamity with one disastrous scenario after another filled with crude set pieces and penis jokes.

This movie doesn’t come close to the original. Is it funny? Sure, I was laughing frequently. But it’s less memorable for sure. This installment is written and directed by the same guys responsible for Horrible Bosses and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. The latter film heavily illustrates the problem with remakes for me. With Burt Wonderstone, an original story, I expected almost nothing and left the theater much happier than I had anticipated. With Vacation, I probably enjoyed the film on about the same scale but feel compelled to criticize it for its inability to reproduce the same fun had back in 1983. Much like the cameo from Chris Helmsworth’s “package” in the film, it’s not fair but impossible to avoid.