Vacation

If you must go see Vacation, make sure you arrive early enough for the opening-credits sequence, which features an amusing montage of goofy random family photos taken from the Internet, set to the familiar sounds of Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road.”

Those few minutes set a gleefully mischievous tone that never pays off in this raunchy remake of the classic 1983 comedy of family road-trip misadventures.

While the emphasis is still on slapstick buffoonery, the original film had some wit and charm, while the updated version just strings along a series of gross-out gags that lead only to narrative dead-ends.

This installment focuses on Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms), the teenage son from the first movie who’s all grown up now. He’s a fledgling airline pilot living in Chicago with his wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate), and two bickering sons.

In an effort to spice up their usual summer vacation, Rusty arranges a road trip to California and specifically, to Walley World, the theme park he memorably visited as a child. Naturally, the ill-fated odyssey — which includes a stop at the Texas ranch of Rusty’s sister, Audrey (Leslie Mann), and her redneck husband (Chris Hemsworth) — goes wrong in every way imaginable, allowing each of the Griswolds to be humiliated on multiple occasions.

The film, which marks the directorial debut of screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Horrible Bosses), certainly doesn’t disguise its low-brow intent, although many of the crass and tasteless jokes feel labored.

Their misguided attempt to pay tribute to the original Vacation sprinkles in some big laughs, but has trouble sustaining its momentum at feature length. The self-referential moments are a mixed bag, with Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo briefly reprising their roles from the first film (they’re grandparents now). There’s also an early exchange in which Rusty tries to convince Debbie that this vacation to Walley World will stand on its own rather than just copying his original trip.

There are scattered hints of the potential that’s just never realized, as we witness a constant cross-country barrage of embarrassing episodes involving bodily functions and bumbling idiocy.

Of course, the Griswolds are clueless when it comes to navigation, kind of like the film itself. Being stuck in the car with them feels like enduring a torture chamber. So it’s best just to stay home.

Rated R, 99 minutes.