The Super, Fantastic ,Terrific Page of Movies, TV and Entertainment : Vacation 1983 Vs Vacation 2015

I was really excited when they announced a new Vacation movie. The original Vacation and Christmas Vacation are two of my favorite films. I was glad to hear that it is wasn’t going to be a reboot –but instead a sequel featuring Rusty the son from the original movie taking his own family on an adventure. The original Vacation movie is an absolute classic. Christmas Vacation is a must see Holiday gem. Even Vegas Vacation has grown on me as an entertaining watch. (European Vacation NOT SO MUCH)
So I can’t help but look at the new one as a comparison to the original.

The new version of Vacation stars Ed Helms as Rusty Griswald and Christina Applegate as his wife . Both actors did a solid job and Chevy Chase was onboard in a small role.

Vacation 2015 7 out of 10

The problem for me is that I do love the original so much. The original from 1983 is basically on a comedy movie pedestal for me along with movies like the Holy Grail and Airplane as one of my favorite comedies ever. So although I enjoyed the new movie there really weren’t any scenes that were truly memorable like in the original. When the original comes on TV I find myself watching pretty much quoting every scene. I can’t imagine doing that with this movie.

Vacation 1983 10 out of 10

The 1983 National Lampoon’s Vacation starring Chevy Chase and Beverly DeAngelo is the perfect family road trip gone wrong. Chevy was at his absolute best as Clark Griswald and it is one of those movies where I smile during every scene while watching it. There are so many classic moments. The visit to Cousin Eddie’s……The dog behind the car…….Aunt Edna dying and putting her on the roof. The “This is a quest for Fun” speech. And of course the iconic Christie Brinkley in the pool scene (she still looks amazing today).

All of these obstacles in the way of a father’s quest to give his family a Vacation they will remember. Anyone who has had a wacky family vacation knows exactly what this film taps into.The original Vacation has inspired many movies over the years. The only movie that really came close in capturing was We’re the Millers which I thought was a clever twist on the Vacation movies with a fake family pretending to be a Griswald type family.

The current Vacation tried to be edgy and adult and just didn’t really capture the magic of the original. It had some fun scenes like the dip in Griswald Springs and the Chris Hemsworth scene. I still found it an enjoyable film and I’m probably just being too hard on it when comparing it to the original . This movie just had a lot to live up to. It seemed like the best scenes in this new version were either already in the trailers.

Here are the Trailers