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

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My Top 5 movies to see for the rest of the Summer Movie Season

The two biggest Summer movies as far as I'm concerned have already come out.  That is Jurassic World and Avengers 2.  I loved both films.  The one big movie that I missed was Tomorrowland (so did everyone else apparently).  I wanted to see Tomorrowland- but by the time it came out Jurassic World was in theaters so it will have to wait until DVD.   I did see a really cool sneak peek of it at Disneyland which was amazing  (Here is my Disney blog about that)

http://braddisneylandblog.blogspot.com/2015/05/tomorrowland-movie-sneak-peek-small.html


So now that these big movies have come out already what is left?

5.   Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.  

This franchise has been a mixed bag.  
Mission Impossible 1996  was a 8 out of 10
Mission Impossible 2 2000  was my least  favorite big budget action sequel ever (I totally hated it) 4 out of 10
Mission Impossible 3  2006   8 out of 10  was excellent my favorite in the series.
Mission Impossible 4 2011 was okay --but not great  6 out of 10

When the trailer for this one came out I thought it looked as good as if not better than the upcoming James Bond.  

4.   Masterminds:

My stepson asked if I wanted to see this movie and honestly I hadn't even heard of it yet.  I looked it up online and without even seeing a trailer I put it on my list based on the cast alone. Zach Galigianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wigg I'm in.

3.   Vacation

One of my favorite franchises growing up.  Both the original Vacation and Christmas Vacation are in my top comedies of all-time.  Ed Helms is getting a shot at carrying the franchise forward as a grown up Rusty taking his family on a Vacation like the kind he took as a kid.   The Trailers look good and  with Christina Applegate as his wife and Chevy Chase guesting --I'm looking forward to seeing if they can get it right.

2. Antman

I'm hoping to see the sneak peek at Disneyland in the next week which will probably jump start my excitement for this Marvel film.  It may be the Marvel movie I've been the least excited for--but Marvel has been hitting it out of the park lately and it does star Paul Rudd

1. Inside Out

I'll probably be seeing this movie this week and reviewing it on my Disney blog.   Pixar just really makes great movies and from the buzz this is no different.  A high concept film that looks like it could be a lot of fun,

What are the 5   remaining Summer movies you are looking forward to? 

Terminator would have made my list:   The first 2 by Cameron were classic.   T3 and Terminator Salvation were disappointments so now I have no idea how to feel about this franchise. 

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