Movie Review: Vacation

Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Christina Applegate and Ed Helms in ‘Vacation.’ Hopper Stone

Maybe National Lampoon’s Vacation comedies, begun in 1983, hit your sweet spot. Maybe it’ll hit again with this next-generation reboot from writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. With Ed Helms as Rusty Griswold ”” son of Clark (Chevy Chase) and Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) ”” taking his wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate), and sons, James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins), down holiday road, there must be raucous R-rated fun. You’d think, but the gags about pedophiles and eating shit smack of desperation. Leslie Mann and wild-card Chris Hemsworth, as her cock-flashing hubby, get the heartiest hoots. The rest is comic history warmed over.