I had been putting off today’s film for quite some time because I don’t believe in the idea of releasing a sequel or reboot of a franchise that was popular thirty years before. Nevertheless, for today I decided to check out 2015’s Vacation which follows in the footsteps of National Lampoon’s Vacation. This time around, Rusty (Ed Helms) is an adult with his own family which includes his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and his kids James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins). Things are pretty bland for him as he works for a crap airline and things at home just look like they need some sprucing up. So, he decides to take his family across country to Wally World like his father did thirty years before. The film also stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor) as Stone Crandall, Leslie Mann (Knocked Up) as Audrey Crandall, Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) as Chad, Catherine Missal (Natural Selection) as Adena, Ron Livingston (Office Space) as Ethan, Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu) as Jack Peterson, Regina Hall (Scary Movie) as Nancy Peterson, Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) as Trucker, Chevy Chase (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) as Clark Griswold, Beverly D’Angelo (National Lampoon’s European Vacation) as Ellen Griswold, and the film was directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein who both made their feature length directing debut with this film.
I am going to start off saying that I wasn’t completely let down by the film because it was a good film, but a little too late for it. The film just didn’t have anything that made me laugh my butt off like the original films did. It was like they tried a little too hard to be as goofy and oblivious as the original film, but just couldn’t hit the mark. I really like Ed Helms as an actor, but I thought it was Stu from The Hangover out there the whole time while he is supposed to be Rusty Griswold who I don’t remember being that clueless. The best part of the film in my opinion was the relationship between the two brothers because those gave some great moments in the film and I can’t speak highly enough of Chris Hemsworth. I think once he is done being Thor, he seriously needs to continue his career in comedy. They tried to be like the original without really being the original even teasing you with some scenes that were similar to the original. For example, there is the scene where beautiful supermodel and actress Hannah Davis is driving in a Ferrari which is similar to the scene in the original with Christie Brinkley driving in the Ferrari with different end results to make it new. That was a cool nod, but let’s move on. I loved the scene though with the four cops (Nick Kroll, Tim Heidecker, Kaitlin Olson, and Michael Peña) who were from four different states that couldn’t stop arguing with each other. That was fresh and different, but here is why this film fails in comparison to the original. John Hughes was the master at writing and he wrote the original film and Harold Ramis knew comedy and he directed it. It’s hard to live up to those names, but at least they tried. I am going to give Vacation a grade somewhere between a C+/B- and only because Holiday Road was in the film.
I think I have mentioned before that I usually do not like to watch films that are based on movies, but what can you do when Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) stars in the movie. The movie that I chose for today is called The 5TH Wave and it follows a young girl named Cassie (Moretz) as she recounts each horrific wave of the alien takeover. You see one day the aliens showed up and they slowly began taking over the earth trying to eliminate the humans. All Cassie has left in the world is her little brother Sam (Zackary Arthur), but Sam was taken away by the military who said they were there to help. All Cassie wants to do is get back to Sam before it’s too late. The film also stars Gabriela Lopez (Million Dollar Arm) as Lizbeth, Nick Robinson (Jurassic World) as Ben Parish, Ron Livingston (Office Space) as Oliver Sullivan, Tony Revolori (Dope) as Dumbo, Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as Vosch, Maria Bello (Prisoners) as SGT. Reznik, Maika Monroe (It Follows) as Ringer, Talitha Bateman (Life Grows On) as Teacup, Alex Roe (The Calling) as Evan Walker, and the film was directed by J Blakeson (The Disappearance Of Alice Creed).
Most of the teen aimed book films that we have seen never deal with what has happened, you just assume that some bad things happened. This film deals with what happened and it moves through the different waves which is pretty much everyone’s fear. Giant waves as one of the waves, losing electricity to make us act like animals, and so on and so forth. I have to be perfectly honest and say that this actually wasn’t that bad of a film, it was actually pretty good. Chloë Grace Moretz was as good as you would expect her to be, but for me Maika Monroe was awesome as the bad ass chick that you don’t mess with. I had been waiting to see her in a film since I had seen her amazing performance in It Follows. The movie also has all the things you would want as far as the story is concerned with the twists (I never read the book) and the paranoia of who is human and who is an alien pretending to be human? The cinematography is great especially during the flooding scenes and the acting was very good. Now as far as a second film is concerned, I have no idea because I don’t remember if this film did well in the theaters or not to warrant a second film. I actually would love to see what happens next to our protagonists. So, I am going to recommend this film cause it’s worth at least a watch. I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 