Dan Aykroyd

John Candy

Stephanie Faracy

Annette Bening

Chris Young

Lucy Deakins

Robert Prosky

Ian Giatti

Hilary Gordon

Rebecca Gordon

Zoaunne LeRoy

Nancy Lenehan

John Bloom

Lewis Arquette

Britt Leach

Cliff Bemis

Paul Hansen

Debra Lee Ortega

Sierra Somerville

Christine Spiotta

Chris Bass

Shirley Harris

Christopher Kinsman

Andy Prosky

Brian Healy

Bart the Bear

Raleigh Bond

Ric Waite

Tom Rolf

Rob Bottin

Arne Schmidt

Seth Flaum

William D. Gordean

Tom Jacobson

John Hughes

Howard Deutch

Thomas Newman

John W. Corso

Charles Newirth

Tom C. McCarthy

Dione Taylor

John Frazier

Alan Friedman

Elena Spiotta

Stephen Lim

Tom Kramer

C. Darin Knight

Marilyn Vance

Walter Scott

John H. Anderson

Ben Nye Jr.

Kenny Ortega

Carol A. O'Connell

Judith Weiner

Comedy

The Great Outdoors

Universal Pictures

Hughes Entertainment

United States of America

English

attachment to nature

holiday

roommates

wisconsin

grizzly bear

cabin

best friend

family holiday

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.

"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.

The Great Outdoors - Trailer

The Great Outdoors( 1988)

The wildlife is wild, but his brother-in-law in unbearable.

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A review by Kamurai

Written by Kamurai on Wed Feb 24 2021

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