I happened to get the chance to sit down to watch the 2018 Hong Kong comedy "Staycation" (aka "Yat ga dai sai") here in 2021. I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it, so I didn't know what I was in for here. All I knew was it being a Hong Kong comedy. And that by itself is sufficient to make me want to watch a movie.
Turns out that this movie from director Johnson Lee Si-jit was nothing more than a shameful plagiarism of the "National Lampoons" movies, especially the "Christmas Vacation" movie. It was just toe-curling to watch them attempt to perform the exact same scenes as Chevy Chase did back in the day. And trust me, the scenes in "Staycation" are often nothing more than frame-by-frame rip off of those movies. It was horrible to witness.
Now, "Staycation" was mentioned as being an homage to "National Lampoons" and such movies. Homage? No. Not when you blatantly rip off said movies by shooting them frame-by-frame with a Chinese cast.
There was absolutely nothing original about this 2018 movie and I didn't even stick around to finish it. I managed about 45 minutes of shameful copying of other movies. And I honestly have no interest in revisiting old classic comedy movies, but with a Chinese cast. It was just laughable.
The acting in the movie was adequate enough, just a shame that the actors and actresses virtually had no script or anything noteworthy to work with in "Staycation".
If you enjoy Hong Kong comedies, do yourself a favor and skip on this plagiarism attempt of comedy. It simply isn't worth the time, effort or money. I am rating "Staycation" a two out of ten stars, based solely on the production value of the movie and the adequate acting performances.
