The Griswolds return to form in the 2015 comedy Vacation.

The comedy, information pills which continues the adventures of the family from National Lampoon’s Vacation and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, symptoms focuses on Rusty, viagra sale the family’s oldest son who has now grown up and created a family of his own. Played by Ed Helms, Rusty– like his father before him– wants to take his family to Walley World, a giant amusement park.

Like the original Vacation, much of the film’s comedy derives from the family road trip that ensues on the way to the park. Here, some of the scenes (including a visit to a waste treatment river and a visit to a grimy hotel room) fall apart but there are really strong elements here that create a few chuckles as well.

The film’s greatest strengths may be in the supporting cast with Christina Applegate standing out in a scene involving her old sorority. Also, Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins do strong work as bickering siblings with Gisondo playing a hyper-sensitive teenager with more journals than one could image and Stebbins playing his tough-minded and possibly psychotic little brother.

The film recently arrived on Blu-Ray and DVD and includes some great special features.

DVD Special Features: A reel of deleted scenes including a noteworthy one featuring Chris Hemsworth’s weatherman Stone Crandall and a look at the benefits of filming in Georgia.

Blu-Ray Features: A gag reel, a featurette entitled Return to Walley World and a segment called The Griswold Odyssey, which talks about some of the family’s relationship’s to one another.

Highlight: The brief Georgia featurette discusses the benefits of filming in Atlanta and the surrounding area (and all of the unique locales found there) and also notes Helms’ personal connection to that area.

Click here to purchase the film on Amazon.com.

 
From the 2012 original to its latest entry, more about
the onscreen adaptations of the Suzanne Collins Hunger Games literary trilogy have stood out. At the heart of the original film, price
the games — which featured children murdering other children for the entertainment of the rich — were gruesome and tough to handle but the series grew from that set-up to become something more valuable. In the hands of capable screenwriters and a strong cast, the franchise presented more than typical young adult fare: it presented a strong story about standing up against tyranny.

After three motion pictures, the fourth one — entitled The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 — has finally arrived. Collins’ final book in the literary trilogy was unfortunately stretched into two separate films meaning that Part I featured a lengthy build-up to this final chapter. That film showed what was really at stake in the revolution while Part II shows the climactic battle itself, allowing Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the heroine who risked her life to save her sister’s, the chance to finally face off against her nation’s brutal political leaders and end their reign of terror for good.

As the series began, the nation’s tyrannical President Snow (Donald Sutherland) was forcing each of the twelve districts to send two players into a competition to the death. This was a tradition that the Capitol — the nation’s center of power and the home to the rich and powerful elites of the community — enjoyed every year. In fact, the games themselves were a television sport to them. Since Katniss volunteered for the games and defied the government with the support of Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a fellow District 12 competitor, she’s been forced into the limelight as a leader in the rebellion against the Capitol.

In this final chapter, Katniss – who is forced to work with a brainwashed and clearly unstable Peeta — finally has the opportunity to face down the leaders of the Capitol.

Instead of a predictable action-packed outcome though, this adaptation offers a larger message about the trauma of war. From Peeta’s brainwashing (which prevents him from knowing if Katniss is a friend or a foe) to the growing cynicism of the rebels, the feature takes its time to show that the costs of war can be both physical and psychological. When Gale (Liam Hemsworth) — Katniss’ long-time best friend — talks about the casualties of war, he notes that “No one who supports the Capitol is innocent” and Katniss realizes how the war has painfully affected even her closest confidante.

The film is packed with strong action sequences courtesy of director Francis Lawrence. From an oil attack to an anxiety-ridden sewer battle (that feels appropriately like a scene from a horror film), the director knows how to create dramatic tension at the right moments but he also knows when to slow down the pace for character development. In between battle sequences, there are a few great emotional moments here including a few great tender moments between Katniss and her sister Prim (Willow Shields) and a beautifully-depicted wedding.

In addition to accurately depicting many of the action-packed scenes from the book, Lawrence has also brought his attention to the series’ most powerful themes, making sure to include some of the key lessons from the final book in here.

At its core, the Hunger Games series tells more than the story of one heroine who fights against her nation’s oppressors. It tells the story of how citizens can rise up and be heard. Even with noble goals though, revolutionaries can change from being heroes to being oppressors themselves as the cost of war is more potent than we often imagine.

After the battle is done here, one character states “We need to stop viewing each other as enemies,” which serves as a suitable final theme in a series that was never satisfied with simply telling a story. The series wanted to convey something deeper and as with this stirring conclusion, it definitely does.