Vacation feels like it is in very familiar territory right from the start. It is very sweary, low-brow and has a heavy reliance on pooh-and-dick jokes, but what else is to be expected? Nevertheless, it is reasonably chucklesome and played well with an audience, with a game cast that elevates the material considerably, and there are a number of reasonable set pieces that veer from desperately predictable to occasional surprise, taking in gross-out and sometimes distasteful humour along the way. Ed Helms does what Ed Helms does but is consistent and a good fit here, the magnificent Christina Applegate is as ever comedically very engaging, and the two boys are unusually strong performers here, with nicely-played work from Skyler Gisondo as the older more sensitive brother and Steele Stebbins is fun as the foul-mouthed bullying younger. Chevy Chase's brief cameo shows he still has spot-on timing, and Chris Hemsworth swaggers hilariously as the smug brother-in-law. Vacation is what it is, and indeed what the National Lampoon movies always have been - undemanding, simple, low-brow adult-comedy entertainment - and on that level it delivers appropriately.
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