The Great Outdoors main backdrop
The Great Outdoors main poster

The Great Outdoors

Visit website

6.4/10 • 527

1988-06-171h 31m

Comedy

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

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.

Directors
Howard Deutch
Writters
John Hughes
Editors
William D. Gordean

Top Billed Cast

View Credits
  1. Dan Aykroyd

    Dan Aykroyd

    Roman Craig

  2. John Candy

    John Candy

    Chet Ripley

  3. Stephanie Faracy

    Stephanie Faracy

    Connie Ripley

  4. Annette Bening

    Annette Bening

    Kate Craig

  5. Chris Young

    Chris Young

    Buck Ripley

  6. Lucy Deakins

    Lucy Deakins

    Cammie

  7. Robert Prosky

    Robert Prosky

    Wally

  8. Ian Giatti

    Ian Giatti

    Ben Ripley

  9. Hilary Gordon

    Hilary Gordon

    Cara Craig

Reviews2

View Reviews
Kamurai Avatar

Kamurai

Feb 24, 2021

4/10

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.

Media

  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster
  • The Great Outdoors poster

Recommendations

  • Flesh Eating Mothers main backdrop

    Flesh Eating Mothers

    4.6

  • The Manhattan Project main backdrop

    The Manhattan Project

    6.2

  • Extracurricular main backdrop

    Extracurricular

    5.0

  • Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon main backdrop

    Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon

    5.4

  • Devil's Night main backdrop

    Devil's Night

    4.8

  • Amityville: The Evil Escapes main backdrop

    Amityville: The Evil Escapes

    4.5

  • Uncle Buck main backdrop

    Uncle Buck

    6.8

  • Eight Men Out main backdrop

    Eight Men Out

    6.9

  • Punchline main backdrop

    Punchline

    5.4

  • The Great Passage main backdrop

    The Great Passage

    7.2

  • From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter main backdrop

    From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter

    4.9

  • Street Trash main backdrop

    Street Trash

    6.1

  • Evil Toons main backdrop

    Evil Toons

    4.8

  • Summer Rental main backdrop

    Summer Rental

    6.1

  • Hello I Must Be Going main backdrop

    Hello I Must Be Going

    6.0

  • She's Having a Baby main backdrop

    She's Having a Baby

    5.9

  • Funny Farm main backdrop

    Funny Farm

    6.2

  • Freaky Friday main backdrop

    Freaky Friday

    6.1

  • Mac and Me main backdrop

    Mac and Me

    4.4

  • Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise main backdrop

    Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise

    5.6

Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$24,000,000.00
Revenue
$43,455,230.00
Keywords
attachment to natureholidayroommatewisconsingrizzly bearcabinbest friendfamily holiday