I never went to see this movie with the expectation that it was going to top or at least compare to the original,so maybe that's why I wasn't disappointed in it like obviously many others here and in general were.The 1983 Vacation that kick-started this franchise was even better than the sequels that followed,and I'm honestly one of the few people in this world who didn't see the appeal of Christmas Vacation beyond that one scene with Bing Crosby's Hawaiian Christmas song.Anyhow,this was a decent reboot with a now-adult Rusty Griswold with his own family.The crude,adulterated humor and foul language in this one is not so over-the-top in this day and age as it would have been 32 years ago had it been prevalent then.Ed Helms was a great choice for the role of Rusty as was Christina Applegate as his wife Debbie.On top of her obvious risqué humor that we know she conveys so well on screen,she can play the straight woman convincingly enough that you forget for a brief moment that she was "Kelly Bundy" on "Married With Children" 3 decades prior.While I won't exaggerate by giving this modernization of Vacation 10 stars out of 10,it definitely deserves 7 for sticking with tradition and yet standing out on its own in a Hollywood that's become too formulaic.
