Customer Reviews

Great Outdoors [VHS]

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love this movie, John Candy at his best with Dan Akroyd playing the uptight rich guy that we all love to hate. These two characters clash throughout the movie, displaying a great chemistry between the two actors. Watching this movie makes me sad that Candy is no longer with us, as he was just fun to watch.
The reason that I give this 4 stars is that I could not stand the forced summer teen romance that was a part of the formula for most movies in the 80's. They could have cut those bits out altogeher and it would have been better.
The physical comedy between John Candy and an eleven foot grizzly make this a classic and a must-have.

John Candy as the big hearted family man, Chet Ripley and his sweet wife Connie played by Stephanie Faracy venture to Winconsin's big woods on the lake with their two boys for their yearly nice, relaxing, family vacation. Things are going well for the Ripley's until...

Chet's obnoxious, wheeler dealer, snake of a brother-in-law, Roman Craig, played by Dan Aykroyd and his snooty and icy wife Kate, played by Annette Bening (in her screen debut) show up quite unannounced to spend some family time with the Ripleys. Also in tow are Roman and Kate's two red headed creepy twin daughters Kara and Mara. These twin girls have nothing on the twin girls from the movie, "The Shining" except these creepy little girls are ALIVE!

However the Craig Family appearance at the Ripley cabin door is QUITE uninvited! That makes no nevermind to Roman, who spoils most of the family fun that Chet has planned for him and his sons.

When Chet is grilling hamburgers and hotdogs outside, Roman goes and buys lobsters to grill and spoils Chet's family meal. When Chet wants to rent a pontoon boat to fish with his boys, Uncle Roman instead rents a jetboat with a great water ski scene ensuing!

One of the best scenes in the movie is when the whole clan goes out to eat at a steakhouse and Chet puts down "the ol' 96'er". A 96 oz. steak (gristle, fat and all!!)so that the rest of the family can get their meals for free!

There is a nice romance budding between Chet's oldest boy Buck and another vacationer, Cammie (a young Lucy Deakins), several hilarious scenes with wildlife such as bats, raccoons and a bald headed bear of Calaveras County and a even a birthday party for a dead guy!

The Great Outdoors is a great family movie to be enjoyed by all!

Happy Watching!

I love John Candy and Dan Ackroyd in this film. Be willing to suspend any requirement you may have for reality and let your imagination run with the plot. THIS IS A VERY HONEST PORTRAYAL (IF STEREOTYPICAL) OF CHICAGO RESIDENTS WHO LEAVE CHICAGO TO GO NORTH TO WISCONSIN FOR VACATION (I've lived in Chicago). The film is not aging well, but, alas, John Candy is no longer with us so we have to content ourselves with what we have of John Candy and be grateful for the medium that has preserved his talent for us to still enjoy. The movie is reminiscent of the "Vacation" movies with Chevy Chase. I actually "guffawed", a huge belly laugh, at some of the stunts in this movie, especially the scene where John Candy is driving a car pulling a speed boat on a trailer. I agree with all of the positive reviewers here and just had to put my two cents in too. A scene at the beginning of the movie where John Candy's character talks his wife out of her bra while the kids are outside playing and another crack about using the washing machine as a substitute for sex, should have probably earned this movie a PG-13 rating instead of a straight PG. I noticed some negative reviews here from folks who showed the flick to too young viewers. BE SURE TO WATCH THE MOVIE THROUGH TO THE END. THERE IS A GREAT DANCE SCENE AT THE END WHILE THE CREDITS ARE RUNNING~~

I adore "The Great Outdoors". This is one of my favorite John Candy movies of all time. Yeah it is no Shakespeare but I wouldn't have it any other way. Dan Ackroyd plays the obnoxious brother-in-law who crashes John Candy's family vacation up in the woods at a cozy little resort. Dan brings his neglected wife played by Annette Benning and their identical twin daughters who are bit on the scary side. The results is a non-stop laugh riot. No many how many times I have watched this film, I still find myself laughing uncontrollably, especially when the raccoons comes out at night to raid the trash cans. I loved it when the young raccoon is told what hot dogs are made of. Anyone familiar with Doug Seuss's bears would know that this is one of the films that the late Bart the Bear made as the bald-headed bear. I loved the final interaction between John Candy's character and the bald-headed bear. It is one of the funniest scenes in the film, next to the water-skiing scene. One of the classic moments in the film is when the entire family goes out to dinner and John Candy decides to order the ol' 96er (this enormous chunk of beef). I personally love "The Great Outdoors". It remains one of my favorite movies from the '80s. It is pure physical comedy. There are a lot worse films than this if you ask me, namely Carrot Top's lone film "Chairman of the Board".

Dan Aykroyd and John Candy are hysterical in this lighthearted comedy. Candy and his family go to a cabin in the woods for what Candy hopes will be a relaxing summer vacation. Soon after their arrival, Aykroyd and his family show up uninvited and take over. Over the course of the week, they meet a man who has been struck by lightning 66 times, a 100-year-old man who dies on his birthday yet still comes to the party, and a feisty local girl who toys with Candy's oldest son. Add to this a family of determined racoons with a language all their own ("What do they think we have these wonderfully dextrous fingers for?"), an unwelcome bat flying in the house ("It buzzed me"), a dump full of hungry bears ("Yogi and Boo-boo in the flesh"), and a bald-headed grizzly ("Big bear chase me!") and hilarity ensues. It's a movie you'll want to watch again and again.

This is one of my favorite comedies of the 80's. I still love watching it. But be warned, the case says "Anamorphic Widescreen" but it's letterboxed. Maybe they'll be a Blu-Ray in the future.

Granted this is not Dan Akroyd nor John Candy's best work, but it is still highly entertaining and I enjoyed it very much. This film also reminded me what a shame it is that Lucy Deakins doesn't act in movies anymore. When I came across a DVD copy in my local department store at a good price I snapped it up to replace my old VHS version.

My objective in writing this review is to beef about the phony "widescreen" DVD (ISBN 0-7832-2788-4 on the UPC bar). This is a letterboxed DVD. This wouldn't be so bad if the packaging actually stated the truth (in which case I would have not bought it - I would have waited a bit longer for the inevitable anamorphic widescreen which always seems to come out after they drop the price and sell the old inventory out to the suckers). The package bears a 2006 copyright date for this 1988 movie and says "Widescreen 1.85:1" for the disk format. No mention of letterboxing. That really stinks.

The Amazon product description has been amended and now states "Letterboxed". Take note if this is not a format you will be happy with.

I love this movie but why did they cut the scene where John Candy is trying to pull the speed boat on a trailer between some trees with a cop watching only to have the speed boat come falling off the trailer? There is another cut scene where they tell the twin girls to go swimming and when they look at the water a gigantic fish jumps out and they start screaming. They cut a bunch of scenes from other John Candy movies too. Where can I buy the originals and not the edited versions?

I love this movie, if you have ever gone on a family vacation you can relate. Its just a classic John Candy flick and hilarious. A movie I can watch over and over and never get sick of.
A must have, it was a hit when I saw it in the 80's and still one of my favorites.

This is a great movie to just sit down with the family and have some good laughs. John Candy is Hilarious and this is one of his greatest. I highly recommend this movie for the whole family to enjoy.