The Unfunniest Funny That Ever Funnied?

41. Thats the number of movies there have been to date that have carried the National Lampoons monikor (actually some of them have negated the use of the actual term National Lampoons but are still part of the franchise). The first was a bonefide classic in the form of 1978s Animal House whereas the last (not including the 2015 documentary Drunk, Stones, Brilliant, Dead was 2013s Surf Party which I think it would be fair to say is about as far away from the brilliance of Animal House as you can possibly get.

I don't think it would be unfair to say that the vast majority of the NL movies are nothing short of terrible with each subsequent release hammering another nail into the coffin of the franchise. Thats not to say however that there aren't some gulity pleasures among the dross, I for example love Class Reunion but understand that it doesn't get alot of love from most quarters. The stand out enteries of the NL catalogue have always in my opinion been the Vacation movies with the 1983 Vacation, 1985 European Vacation and to a slightly lesser extent 1989 Christmas Vacation all being great comedy movies (I will admit that I had completely forgotten about 1997s Vegas Vacation but theres probably a good reason for that).

So taking the original three Vacations as a trilogy (lets also forget Christmas Vacation 2 which was made for tv in 2003) you have to wonder why anyone would think it would be a good idea to revisit the Griswalds and see what shakes loose. If you really have an aching desire to make more NL movies then by all means go right ahead and carry on making them but just leave the best parts of what has been done before alone and leave us with our cherished memories (Paul Feig and company I'mvery much talking to you, but thats a story for another post).

Unfortunately we live in an age where the remake/reboot is apparently king and so somebody somewhere decided to give the greenlight to 2015s Vacation. Whilst not part of the NL universe lets not kid ourselves, this is very much an attempt to continue the saga that we have come to know and love as we reconnect with Rusty Griswold who is now grown with a family of his own. Theres his wife Debbie and two sons James and Kevin, Kevin is the youger sibling who cusses like a sailor and bullies his older brother with such hilarious acts as writing on his guitar I Have A Vagina (and yes this is about as funny as the film gets).

Long story short Rusty decides to take his family to Wally World to recreate the trip that he took as a child in the original movie, this decision leads to the only moderately funny and clever(ish) moment in the film where in a fourth wall breaking moment his children say they have never heard of the original vacation and Rusty states that this new vacation will stand on its own merits. It's not genius by any stretch of the imagination but it is literally as good as it gets.

I'm not going to trawl through the plot as frankly I don't want to put myself or you the reader through the horrors of such an act but the lowlights include -

Bathing in human excrement

Barey surviving a rafting adventure at the hands of a sucidal instructor

Rusty and Debbie almost being arrested by five overzealous police officers when they attempt to have sex at Five Corners

A hilarious segment where Debbie attempts to relive past glories and ends up vomitting a number of times

I cannot remember a single time where I raised even a smirk let alone a smile or laugh and on more than one occasion my wife who was watching the film with me told me I could turn it off at anytime as she had seen enough.

As for the cast of this film well that too leaves a lot to be desired. Rusty is played by Ed Helms who outside of the original Hangover (the sequels were dire) and We're The Millers has been pretty unexceptional in everything he has done and yet hes the standout performer in this film which should tell you all you need to know about the rest of the cast. Debbie is played by Christina Applegate who has really failed to live up to her potential after her breakout role as Kelly in Married With Children, in fact since then I can think of not a single movie she has appeared in that have left an impression on me (though she was of course in Mars Attacks which I love).

As for the kids well Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins are both young and so hopefully can eventually escape the stench of this abomination, if they have any sense they will not include it on their CV when they go looking for future work. Both Chevy Chase (Clark Griswold) and Beverley D'Angelo (Ellen Griswold) make brief cameos in this film but their presence acts only as a reminder that this film is nothing short of an insult to the original three Vacation movies.

Oh and lets not forget the appearences of Norman Reedus as a paedophile lorry driver (god I wish that was a joke but it actually happened) and Chris Hemsworth as the wealthy boyfriend of Rustys sister Audrey, the sole purpose of his turn here is to parade around sporting a huge prosthetic penis (again I kid you not). Now both of these actors will be fine in the aftermath of this movie as Hemsworth can keep making Thor films and will continue getting work in Hollywood despite actually not being the greatest actor in the world and Reedus will always have a place in our hearts as Daryll in The Walking Dead but you do have to wonder just why they agreed to appear in this attrocuious project in the first place. Michael Pena also appears in one of the dumbest scenes of the film as one of the aforementioned police officers, the best thing I can say about that is that at least hes not as bad as Hemsworth or Reedus.

I could go on but to be honest as much as I'd recommend that you never ever put yourself through the turmoil of watching this film it actually needs to be seen to be believed and so if you have a spare couple of hours with literally nothing else to do (and that includes not having any paint to watch dry) then pull up a chair, stick this film on and then when its done make a vow to never speak of it again.

Vacation is quite an achievement as for me it is the most unfunny'comedy' I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. On its own it would be uninspiraring and soul destroying but when given the context of from whence it came in an historical sense its awfulness is amplified 100 fold.

I give this film the score it deserves, a whopping 0 out of 10.