VACATION ★★
(MA) General release (99 minutes)

In the current cinematic world of reboots and revivals, National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) doesn't seem the most pressing candidate for recycling: it has already had three sequels, culminating in Vegas Vacation in 1997, and it was exhumed for a Superbowl commercial in 2010.

Nevertheless, the Griswold family are back in action, although this time the focus is on the next generation, on Rusty, the son played by Anthony Michael Hall in the first film. The adult Rusty (Ed Helms) is a put-upon pilot for a budget airline; he's married to Debbie (Christina Applegate), and they have two sons, sensitive guitar-playing James (Skyler Gisondo) and pint-sized bully Kevin (Steele Stebbins). Fantasising about father-son bonding, Rusty decides to repeat the route of 1983 road trip, and head off to Walley World, a longed-for holiday destination that no one else in the family wants to visit.

They pile into their car – an Albanian Tartan Prancerwith a bewildering array of remote-controlled devices – and hit the road. Along the way, there are gags involving Debbie's wild sorority past, and a dip into a clearly unsavoury hot springs locations. A scene involving an unhinged whitewater-rafting instructor (Charlie Day) seems closest to the spirit of the first film.

Vacation is the work of writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, and the pair also make their feature directing debut . Daley and Goldstein, whose credits include Horrible Bosses and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, give us a mostly dispiriting comedy. Its gross-out scenes are laboured and its its running gags tedious – none more than Rusty's wish for a family singalong to Seal's Kiss From A Rose.

Helms' character is borderline creepy throughout; Applegate is more appealing in a role that still a waste of her comic talents. Leslie Mann, as Rusty's sister Audrey, is barely sighted. Chris Hemsworth as her husband, a right-wing TV weather forecaster and cattle rancher, has more screen time, and seems to be enjoying himself in a role designed for beefcake display.

There's nothing good about the reappearance of Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo, the original Griswolds. Chase seems uncomfortable in every scene he plays.