Roman Craig
Dan Aykroyd
Roman Craig
The Great Outdoors
“This is no holiday… this is war!”
6.5
1988
1h 31m
Comedy
Director: Howard Deutch
Overview
It's vacation time for outdoorsy Chicago man Chet Ripley, along with his wife, Connie, and their two kids, Buck and Ben. But a serene weekend of fishing at a Wisconsin lakeside cabin gets crashed by Connie's obnoxious brother-in-law, Roman Craig, his wife, Kate, and the couple's two daughters. As the excursion wears on, the Ripleys find themselves at odds with the stuffy Craig family.
Trailer
The Great Outdoors - Trailer
Cast
Chet Ripley
John Candy
Chet Ripley
Connie Ripley
Stephanie Faracy
Connie Ripley
Kate Craig
Annette Bening
Kate Craig
Buck Ripley
Chris Young
Buck Ripley
Cammie
Lucy Deakins
Cammie
Wally
Robert Prosky
Wally
Ben Ripley
Ian Giatti
Ben Ripley
Cara Craig
Hilary Gordon
Cara Craig
Mara Craig
Rebecca Gordon
Mara Craig
Juanita
Zoaunne LeRoy
Juanita
Waitress
Nancy Lenehan
Waitress
Reviews
Kamurai
Decent watch at best, probably won't watch again, but can recommend for those on a late-eighties nostalgia kick. Sometimes it is good to get in "The Way Back Machine" and see some of the movies that made people famous, and I liked Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. The duplicitous plot and character choices just didn't sit great with me. Having recently seen "Brother Nature", it is interesting to see a movie that could have inspired it. I think it would have been a lot better with John Candy as an overwhelmingly positive buzzkill and Aykroyd playing a family man. But Candy is sort of the family man of the late 1980s, and Aykroyd is the quintessential New York scumbag, and they do it well. I'd ultimately say it is worth the watch, but there are probably a dozen "back to nature" movies I could recommend in front of this one.
Read full reviewkevin2019
"The Great Outdoors" is only a moderately entertaining film, although it does feature the unforgettably spectacular sight of John Candy water skiing. The grizzly bear action also works well and there is always an enthusiastic energy about this film which every member of the cast effortlessly maintains, but in terms of John Hughes's output this entry is not one of his more memorable outings and some of it does feel like miscellaneous bottom drawer material that has so far gone unused until now. He has done a reasonable job of using such material - if this indeed happens to be the case - as the basis for a mildly amusing film which is as watchable as it is because of Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. They are the ones who keep you watching even though you know everyone involved in front and behind the cameras has done so much better work elsewhere.
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