A talented cast can’t do enough to save an almost entirely unfunny film about two discordant couples who meet on holiday and find themselves in chaos
![Vacation Friends review – raucous summer comedy is a washout](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e2038f2f5832901ea8d72870332f4e819a02660e/0_157_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTIucG5n&enable=upscale&s=3c24913cae6159715d98542296ab61c1)
There’s a sense of strained desperation behind the title of the crude summer
comedy Vacation
Friends that seeps through to the film itself, the bullish insistence that, yes, Vacation Friends is a phrase that people frequently use is as deranged as assuming that something as utterly disposable as Vacation Friends needs to exist right now. There’s a migraine-inducing amount of content being thrown at us, especially in the last year, and this downgraded time-waster (from a Fox theatrical release to a Hulu/Disney streaming premiere) is exactly the kind of thing we don’t have time for, vacation or no.
Related: Candyman review – BLM horror reboot is superb confection of satire and scorn