Vacation
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: July 29, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
14
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 30, 2015
Vacation is lazy, idiotic, and gross — and I laughed my ass off at it. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 28, 2015
Ed Helms, a Hangover veteran, is a perfect choice to take over the reins from Chase. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 28, 2015
Vacation is consistently funny from beginning to end, a piling on of dumb but inventive jokes and excruciating, awkward situations. Read full review
70
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerJul 28, 2015
Strengthening of brotherly and marital bonds is the real agenda, of course, but happily the movie never stays on these laugh-killing themes long. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 29, 2015
What’s missing is the pent-up anger that simmered behind Chevy Chase’s doofus grin. His Clark was always on the verge of a nuclear-family meltdown. Helms lacks Chase’s passive-aggressive edginess. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherAug 19, 2015
Sweet, self-aware and silly, the new Vacation doesn’t destroy memories or alienate newcomers – but neither does it break the mould. Read full review
60
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 27, 2015
Vacation does occasionally spring to life, delivering the kind of ouch-inducing humor of personal humiliation and bad luck that we’ve come to know from the ongoing adventures of the Griswold family. But while those laughs are welcome, there aren’t quite enough of them to sustain the experience. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 27, 2015
Vacation is a Gen X comedy franchise rebooted exactly how audiences can expect in 2015, bawdier and less likable than whatever classic inspires it. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 30, 2015
This is a funny movie, in places. Read full review
50
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 28, 2015
The biggest problem I have is that the film seems determined to push the outrageousness as far as possible, and there comes a point where it just stops working because it's all so outrageous. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelJul 28, 2015
There's nothing to say that crass can't be funny - and it sometimes is in Daley and Goldstein's iteration - but Vacation loses any of the ooey-gooey, family-friendly heart that made you really want Clark to get to Walley World to begin with. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJul 28, 2015
It’s just a middling cover of a pretty good old song, adrift in the present day. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 28, 2015
Nothing really connects, not the bullying brothers, not the frustrated parents, not the sight gags familiar to anyone who's seen the giveaway trailer. The whole production has a cheap, tacky look that the talented leads, Helms and Applegate, can't save despite considerable charm and effort. Read full review
40
EmpireSimon CrookAug 19, 2015
Less a reboot, more a hit-and-miss cover-version. The cast are game, Applegate especially, but the laughs flatten like a deflated tyre. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRebecca KeeganJul 28, 2015
The new Vacation turns out to be a mostly bumpy, unpleasant trip. Read full review
40
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 28, 2015
This new Vacation is hardly an improvement on the old Vacation, and may in fact be worse. Neither of them, to borrow the immortal words of the Go-Go's, is all we ever wanted. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 28, 2015
After a while, Vacation starts to reek like a car when the kids have their shoes off. Really, though, that stench is a studio digging through its old titles, trying to find something fresh to remake. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJul 27, 2015
Helms, a funny performer, is just the face of a mining expedition for easy yuks out of a recognised title. What that says about our regurgitative culture is rather depressing. There’s so much nostalgia on our screens right now. I could really use a vacation. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberJul 27, 2015
The filmmakers’ unsubtle style is responsible for killing many of the jokes. But they do succeed with several of the performers. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 29, 2015
Leslie Mann and wild-card Chris Hemsworth, as her cock-flashing hubby, get the heartiest hoots. The rest is comic history warmed over. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 28, 2015
What’s interesting about Vacation is that it holds on to the original’s acrid cynicism for the first 40 minutes or so before turning predictable and bland. There are some real, nasty laughs to be had here, but they’re front-loaded. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 27, 2015
With every desperate F-bomb, every “Dad, what’s a rim job?” crudity, every crass overreach into vulgarity, Vacation feels pointless, dated and dirty. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJul 28, 2015
Vacation is, minute to minute, one of the most repellent, mean-spirited gross-out comedies it’s ever been my squirmy displeasure to sit through. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthJul 28, 2015
Carelessly crass, and yet enthusiastically performed, the film does at least offer the curious spectacle of witnessing strings of jokes energetically thud in a movie that's not worth the commute to your nearest multiplex. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 28, 2015
I’m all for bawdy, politically incorrect, wildly inappropriate humor — when there are consistent and genuine laughs to be mined from the material. This stuff just sits there like a steaming pile of stuff you walk around. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineEric HendersonJul 28, 2015
Father doesn't just know best, he's the only one whose knowledge or lack thereof means anything at all. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 29, 2015
One of the unfunniest comedies it’s ever been my misfortune to see. Read full review
20
Time OutDavid EhrlichJul 27, 2015
These charmless characters are meant to learn that spending time with each other isn’t so bad, yet surviving 100 minutes with them is one of the great cinematic endurance tests of our time. Read full review
20
VarietyScott FoundasJul 27, 2015
Key to the success of the Vacation movies was their underlying sweetness — the sense that, for all their foibles, the Griswolds were a surprisingly functional lot. Families looked up at the screen and saw a version of themselves reflected back. Look at the new Vacation and all that stares back is a great comic void. Read full review
12
Washington PostStephanie MerryJul 29, 2015
For the most part, Vacation is a sad, cynical rip-off of writer John Hughes’s source material. No one expects originality, but the new movie may end up making history: It’s already looking like the worst movie of the year. Read full review
12
New York PostLou LumenickJul 28, 2015
The geniuses behind the new film just don’t understand the difference between genuine subversiveness and pointless vulgarity. Read full review
0
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJul 30, 2015
Unlike Griswold vacations past, the peril in which the family finds itself isn’t leavened by anything funny. Read full review
0
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 28, 2015
If any of this was surprising or cleverly timed, you'd laugh and then cringe. In Vacation you cringe first and ask questions later. Read full review
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