Vacation (2015)

There are some amusing predicaments typical of the sort the old Griswolds got themselves into, in this 2015 new generation tie-in to the National Lampoon's movie series, but the new movie doesn't work very well because where the Chevy Chase movies were comedies for the whole family with a moral compass and humour of both the more risque adult variety and some goofy childish stuff as well, this new movie is aimed squarely at a teenage audience judging from all the young people in it who swear like troopers, the outrageous lack of consequence in scenes that end calamitously with injury and death, and not to mention the update's distinct lack of heart — this is sometimes funny, but more often shrill, puerile.

★★☆☆☆

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The Hangover 2 (2011)

Las Vegas was a better setting for these amnesiac partiers; their all-too-similar antics in this sequel's Bangkok brings to mind badly behaved football teams on season end breaks to Thailand, all obsessed with semen, erections, and homosexual intercourse, and the monkey isn't as good as the tiger, and the tattoo isn't as good as the dentist's knocked out teeth, the missing brother not as good as the missing groom, etc..

★★☆☆☆

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