The Great Outdoors (1988)

Director:

Howard Deutch

Writer (WGA):

John Hughes (written by)

Release Date:

17 June 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

This holiday's no picnic.

Plot:

A Chicago man's hope for a peaceful family vacation in the woods is shattered when the annoying in-laws drop in.

Plot Keywords:

Brother In Law | Lifting Person In Air | Power Outage | Bat | Dead Man

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Dec. 2	1:00 PM	E
Thur. Dec. 3	7:00 AM	E

Cast

Dan Aykroyd	...	Roman Craig
John Candy	...	Chet Ripley
Stephanie Faracy	...	Connie Ripley
Annette Bening	...	Kate Craig
Chris Young	...	Buck Ripley
Ian Giatti	...	Ben Ripley
Hilary Gordon	...	Cara Craig
Rebecca Gordon	...	Mara Craig
Robert Prosky	...	Wally
Zoaunne LeRoy	...	Juanita
Lucy Deakins	...	Cammie
Nancy Lenehan	...	Waitress
John Bloom	...	Jimbo
Lewis Arquette	...	Herm
Britt Leach	...	Reg

Also Known As:

Big Country (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:PG | Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Bass Lake, California, USA

Company:

Hughes Entertainment

Trivia:

Annette Bening's Film Debut

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Chet is throwing up, Roman (Dan Aykroyd) can be seen giving a cue for the other actors in the scene to run away.

Quotes:

Chet: Bear... bear... Big Bear... big bear chase meeeeeeee...!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in She's Having a Baby (1988)

Soundtrack:

Cabin Fever

What are hot dogs made out of?

A great comedy to settle down with after a long day. Aykroyd and Candy make a great pair in this off-beat comedy about life in the woods, and how one simple vacation turns into a dreaded day-to-day horror.

Basic Plot: John Candy and his family go up to Canada for a family vacation away from the city for several days. Seemingly fine, until they get to their cabin, the whole vacation starts to fall apart from the moment they arrive. Not only is there fish everywhere in their vacation home, but just when mom and dad think they're alone, their brother and sister in-law walk in on them, with their two daughters. From a water-skiing adventure gone wrong- to eating a whole family's worth of food (pun definitely intended.), the movie seems to continually take a turn for the worst. The subplot is Candy's oldest son, who starts to fall in love with a local, to give it that romance along with all the humor that's going on between the adults.

A fun movie to watch from 10- whenever.

I give it a 7.5 out of 10 (10 being the highest). Not one of the best movies ever but certainly funny and it has some great writing too.

A little piece of trivia:

At the end of "She's Having a Baby" right before the credits, you see the wife asking Kevin Bacon what they should name the baby... People from all sorts of films and T.V. shows voice their opinions, including some of the cast members from 'The Great Outdoors'.

And that's the end of this review.