'Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation' is a washed-up mess

By Trevor Sheffield  …We’ve been here before. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, released July 13th, 2018 (a Friday, no less), is a film borrowing from the same school of thought that birthed such films as Rugrats Go Wild!, Alvin and the Chipmunk: Chipwrecked, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2: Uncle Eddie’s Island Adventure. That special part in a series of films where the writers have seemingly run out of ideas two films in (and the first in the case of Cousin Eddie), and decide to make going on a cruise/going “tropical” the focal point of the third outing. Regardless, what makes this notable in this case is the presence of one Adam Sandler. Former SNL wunderkind and leading man behind such perennial classics as Billy Madison, Sandler has made himself known for shamelessly shoehorning in his friends and family into his work (Ex. Grown-Ups), and filming movies in exotic locales (Ex. Hawaii for Just Go with It, Africa for Blended, an expensive Royal Caribbean cruise for Jack and Jill) practically as an excuse for a “well-deserved” vacation. I bring this up because Sandler is the leading man of the Hotel Transylvania franchise, and for the first time in his career, he’s making a vacation movie where he can’t actually go on the vacation. What does this mean for Hotel 3? Well, to say the least, it’s complicated.

Motion of the ocean

Deus Ex Macarena

Bon voyage (and never come back)