Quick Review: Vacation

I saw Vacation a week ago, but didn't quite know how to feel about it. I know it comes from the National Lampoon series of films starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold, but I've never seen any of them. I was aware of the general plot and a few of the jokes of the original. In the new one -- which is a combination of a remake, sequel and reboot, a tricky thing to pull off...wait, I have it: it's a resequeboot! -- Griswold son Rusty (Ed Helms) takes his wife (Christina Applegate, so good at comedy) and their sons on a road trip to Walley World in California, essentially recreating the trip he, sister Audrey and his parents took years before. So I decided to watch the original (unfortunately, just an edited version on basic cable) and compare and contrast. Maybe you may think that's unfair to the new film, because why shouldn't it be judged on its own merits? Well, too bad. My blog, my rules!

Many of the scenarios are basically the same. Both Griswold families have encounters with strangers that end up in their losing money and having their already-inferior vehicles wrecked, both include a stop to visit family, both feature ongoing encounters during the trip with young women. But there are tweaks: for example, while Clark gets attention from a bombshell (Christie Brinkley) in a convertible, in the new film it's Rusty's shy older son James (Skyler Gisondo, who's actually pretty good) who is infatuated with a girl his own age. BTW, the gag that involves a new version of Brinkley's drive in the convertible is brilliant. Too bad it was given away in the trailers.

For me, the new Vacation usually, though not by a large margin, fell a little short of the original in terms of plot. Still, the new one started more slowly but got stronger during the second half. One major failure that lowers my grade a bit: both Chase and D'Angelo appear near the end of the resequeboot (can we make my new word viral, please?) but he gets some funny stuff to do and plays a bit of a role in helping Rusty and family get to Walley World. She gets maybe a couple of inconsequential lines. I think one was "Oh, that's too bad." Tsk. Let's hope that in 30 years, when James Griswold takes his family on the very same trip, Christina Applegate gets more do to in her cameo. My grade: C-plus.

Quick Review: Hall Pass

So, is "Hall Pass" based on any sort of reality? Do married couples do this in real life? Rick (Owen Wilson) and Maggie (Jenna Fischer) have been happily married for years, as have Rick's best friend Fred (Jason Sudeikis) and Grace (Christina Applegate), but the boys are a little bored and are constantly looking at hot women. On the advice of Dr. Lucy (Joy Behar), the wives give their husbands a "hall pass" from marriage. For one week they're allowed to live the single life and get everything out of their system. Two middle-aged men trying to hook up with young babes? You wouldn't expect that to go so well, but things get more complicated as the week goes on. Raunchy -- it's from the Farrelly brothers, and one scene is much more disgusting than the hair-gel scene in "There's Something About Mary" -- but sort of predictable, but it's got some laughs (and in one scene, the two extremes of male frontal nudity). I liked it more than I thought I would going into the theater. My grade: B-minus.

Quick Review: Going The Distance

Surprise, surprise, surprise. The romantic comedy "Going the Distance" turned out to have both required elements: romance and comedy. Erin (Drew Barrymore) is an intern at a New York newspaper (an intern in her 30s? Really?) who is having no luck getting the paper to give her a job as a reporter. (No jobs in the newspaper business? Okay, this part makes sense.) She decides to move back to San Francisco to finish her degree. Garrett (Justin Long) works for a record company (he has to promote a boy band instead of the indie rock acts he loves? Really? Okay, this is actually believable too). Erin and Garrett meet at a pub, have a fun night that goes into the next morning, and decide to keep seeing each other but keep it casual because Erin's leaving for California in six weeks. Those six weeks, however, are magical, and they find themselves in a long-distance relationship -- lots of phone calls, texts, etc. and the occasional cross-country flight. I have no idea if Barrymore and Long are still together in real life, but they make a nice film couple. The obstacles they face are mostly realistic, and the humor is sometimes raunchy (it earns its R rating) but kept me laughing quite a bit. In supporting roles great work is done by Christina Applegate and Jim Gaffigan as Erin's sister and brother-in-law, and Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as Garrett's friends. This movie didn't do well at the box office but deserves a better fate. My grade: B-plus.