The Great Outdoors main backdrop
The Great Outdoors main poster

The Great Outdoors

Visit website

6.5/10 • 554

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
John Hughes, 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

  • Extracurricular main backdrop

    Extracurricular

    5.0

  • Real Men main backdrop

    Real Men

    6.2

  • Flesh-Eating Mothers main backdrop

    Flesh-Eating Mothers

    4.6

  • Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon main backdrop

    Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon

    5.4

  • What a Carve Up! main backdrop

    What a Carve Up!

    7.0

  • Devil's Night main backdrop

    Devil's Night

    4.8

  • The Prisoner of If Castle main backdrop

    The Prisoner of If Castle

    6.8

  • Uncle Buck main backdrop

    Uncle Buck

    6.8

  • The Manhattan Project main backdrop

    The Manhattan Project

    6.2

  • Street Trash main backdrop

    Street Trash

    6.1

  • Amityville: The Evil Escapes main backdrop

    Amityville: The Evil Escapes

    4.5

  • Punchline main backdrop

    Punchline

    5.5

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

    From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter

    4.9

  • She's Having a Baby main backdrop

    She's Having a Baby

    5.9

  • Evil Toons main backdrop

    Evil Toons

    4.8

  • Hello I Must Be Going main backdrop

    Hello I Must Be Going

    6.0

  • Tales of the Black Freighter main backdrop

    Tales of the Black Freighter

    6.7

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

    Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise

    5.6

  • Freaky Friday main backdrop

    Freaky Friday

    6.1

  • Major League main backdrop

    Major League

    6.9

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