I don't know about anyone else, but all of the trailers for Vacation up until this point have done nothing to sell me on the concept of a National Lampoon's Vacation sequel. But finally the Red Band trailer below has done quite a bit in the way of selling me on the finished product. See for yourself how good this trailer is below.
Yahoo had the honors of debuting our latest look at July 29th release, and it feels like this should have been the first trailer to the film's marketing campaign, rather than the reference heavy marketing tool we were first exposed to a while back. Instead, the film looks like it's working in its own space, and the confidence to let Vacation be its own film works wonders.
And while the summer isn't over just yet, it feels like a good time to call the fact that Kevin Griswold, the youngest member of the family, is probably going to be one of the runaway characters of the summer. With a problem sticking to age appropriate language, a bullying complex leads him to terrorize his older brother James, and some seriously dark tendencies; it's a good bet that his lines will be the most quoted. That is, if Vacation manages to hit like Warner Bros and New Line expect it to.
Let's not forget that this isn't Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley's first venture into sequel territory, as they wrote the story for the follow up to their Horrible Bosses series, as well as the screenplay for Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2. Which means that the duo have had a less than impressive streak when it comes to successful sequels, particularly with Horrible Bosses 2, which was seen as quite the let down after Horrible Bosses became such a sleeper hit among comedy audiences upon its release. Still, Vacation is a franchise that while it isn't as hot as it once was, it never really crashed and burned.
The National Lampoon's Vacation series just seemed to happen every now and then, with entries as varied and interesting as their revolving door casting for the roles of Rusty and Audrey Griswold. Seeing as Rusty is the new lead of the franchise though, it's to be assumed that at the very least Rusty won't change in any potential sequels. Considering the meta jokes Vacation looks like it will contain within it story, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see James and Kevin completely recast before the end of the film. Though, for the sake of the film, we'll just hope that this isn't the case.
Vacation plans to make its way down Holiday Road on July 29th.
