Vacation 4K Review (Warner Bros.)

Vacation is a 2015 comedy film written/directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Game Night, Mayday, and In the Dark). It’s a sequel for the Vacation series. The budget was $31,000,000 and it grossed $107,228,221 worldwide at the box office. Rusty Griswold (played by: Ed Helms from The Hangover trilogy, The Office, The Daily Show, Tag, Cedar Rapids, We’re the Millers, Love the Coopers, and Father Figures) decides to take his own family on a vacation to “Walley World” to revisit his childhood. He’s currently struggling his wife Debbie (played by: Christina Applegate from the Anchorman franchise, Married with Children, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Friends, The Big Hit, Surviving Christmas, and Hall Pass). He’s desperate to reconnect with his sons James (played by: Skyler Gisondo from The Righteous Gemstones, Booksmart, Licorice Pizza, Santa Clarita Diet, Psych, and The Amazing Spider-Man franchise) and Kevin (played by: Steele Stebbins from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Arrested Development, and A Haunted House 2) as they take a wild road trip that they never forget. Will the Griswolds survive their time together???? Vacation is a fun reboot and spin-off from the popular comedy franchise. 2015’s Vacation focuses on Rusty Griswold as an adult. He isn’t exactly happy with his life so he tries to go back into the past to have a better relationship with his family. It’s from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein who basically does an update on the 1983 version with their script. Vacation is hilarious, it has various laugh out loud moments. Ed Helms as Rusty Griswold is great as the clueless father. He tries so hard to make this road trip similar to the original one from the past. He looks past what his family really wants. Christina Applegate is excellent as his wife Debbie. She tries her best to go with Rusty’s plans as she deals with all the chaos that they experience on the way. Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprises their iconic roles as the parents in a quick cameo. The rest of the supporting cast includes Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Chris Hemsworth (Thor franchise), Leslie Mann (Knocked Up), Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead), Ron Livingston (Office Space), Catherine Missal (Tell Me Lies), Keegan-Michael Key (The Predator), Regina Hall (Scary Movie franchise), Nick Kroll (The League), Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Michael Peña (Ant-Man franchise), and Colin Hanks (King Kong). The Griswolds end up dealing with so many wacky scenarios in this. Their bad luck is so funny and they always still keep going no matter what. Their chemistry keeps Vacation very interesting and entertaining. The replay value is strong, this was a blast to revisit. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Warner Bros Pictures! This 2160p (2.39:1) transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is an impressive improvement over the original 2015 blu ray home video release. It’s nice to see Warner Bros digging into vaults for all these 4K upgrades. There’s so many attention grabbing and visually appealing locations in Vacation that really stand out here. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on this UHD. The audio is better than expected for a comedy especially the soundtrack. All of the dialogue is very clean, the unlucky situations are elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. It has the almost 10 minute “Return to Walley World”. It has interviews with the cast and crew. They chat about continuing this legendary comedy franchise. They show appreciation for the original. They talk about the script and what they enjoyed about it. They bring up the classic parents returning for this update. It has the 18 minute “The Griswold Odyssey”. It’s a very detailed inside look into the production. They chat about the main vehicle from Vacation. They point out all the unique stuff from it that make it so different from others. They go over some of crazy scenarios and spots the family experiences in this. They go over the cast and characters. It has the almost 2 minute “Gag Reel”. It has the little over 12 minutes of “Deleted Scenes”. It has the 2 minute “Georgia”. It’s dedicated to where they shot this film. The state acted as several different locations for this road trip adventure. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!