The Great Outdoors

Name: The Great Outdoors
Genre: Comedy
Released: June 17, 1988
Duration: 91 min
Rating: 24
Cast: Annette Bening, Chris Young, Dan Aykroyd, Hilary Gordon, Ian Michael Giatti

1988

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Ratings

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7.0

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7.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Ratings

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The Great Outdoors

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Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 17, 1988 | PG

Starring: Annette Bening, Chris Young, Dan Aykroyd, Hilary Gordon, Ian Michael Giatti, John Candy, Rebecca Gordon, Robert Prosky, Stephanie Faracy, Zoaunne LeRoy

Summary: A Chicago man's hope for a peaceful family vacation in the woods is shattered when the annoying in-laws drop in.

Director: Howard Deutch

Genre(s): Comedy

Rating: PG

Runtime: 91 min

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Critic Reviews

Hal Boedeker

The Great Outdoors isn't great. The Dopey Outdoors would be more like it. It's wildly uneven, yet consistently dumb. [17 June 1988, p.C5]

Dave Kehr

Even for John Hughes, who writes movies in less time than most people write postcards, The Great Outdoors seems unusually slapdash. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Writer-executive producer John Hughes conjurs up a romance between Candy’s teenage son (Chris Young) and a local girl (Lucy Deakins), but that proves the film’s biggest letdown. Last third of the film is a real mess, as filmmakers try to whip up a crisis that will unite the family, with the redheaded twins getting lost in a mineshaft during a wild rainstorm. Despite all this, the Aykroyd-Candy pairing is charmed. Stephanie Faracy is excellent as Candy’s sweet, happy wife, and Bening is also savvy in her role. Read full review

Liam Lacey

What can you say about a film the comic high point of which is Dan Aykroyd standing half-naked in a bathroom while extracting hairs from his nostrils with manicure scissors? For starters you can say it's bad, as bad as a film can be that looks to National Lampoon's Vacation for creative inspiration. [17 June 1988]

Janet Maslin

Though the film never becomes actively unfunny, neither does it do much more than tread water. The raccoons have a better time than the audience will. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Scripted by the extraordinarily prolific John Hughes, directed by Howard Deutch, and starring John Candy and Dan Aykroyd, this disappointing comedy should have been much funnier given the talent of those involved. Read full review

Kevin Thomas

The Great Outdoors is about as much fun as ants at a picnic for anyone over the age of 10. It's a crass, blah comedy about summer vacation perils that teams Dan Aykroyd and John Candy, but gives them next to nothing to work with. If the prolific and profit-making John Hughes weren't the writer--as well as the co-executive producer--of this scattershot nonsense directed frenetically by Howard Deutch, it's hard to imagine the film getting made, let alone attracting Aykroyd and Candy. Read full review

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User Reviews

Catman55990329

Aug 31, 2021

This movie is hilarious watch it now especially the water ski and the bear scene

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

manwe7

Nov 19, 2019

Critics are idiots and are completely out of touch with the rest of us. I loved this movie and watched it 10 times.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DawdlingPoet

Nov 25, 2021

This is a quite amusing, although pretty predictable and somewhat cliched comedy film, which is (for the most part) family friendly, although there are some more adult (sex and otherwise) references made but they'd mostly not be noticed by young kids, I imagine. Its cheesy but its a veryThis is a quite amusing, although pretty predictable and somewhat cliched comedy film, which is (for the most part) family friendly, although there are some more adult (sex and otherwise) references made but they'd mostly not be noticed by young kids, I imagine. Its cheesy but its a very easy watch and it made me laugh a few times, which is the main thing surely. It was nice to see Dan Akroyd and John Candy on screen again. I'm sure I saw this film when I was a kid but I hadn't seen it in years and was offered it cheap from a friend, so I couldn't resist buying it - who wouldn't want a comedy to indulge in, given how negative things are at the moment in general?. I wouldn't say its one of my favourite comedy films but its certainly worth a watch and is, at th every least, likely to make you chuckle a few times, as long as your ok with cheesy, visual/slapstick type comedy - if so then I definitely recommend this film but if not then perhaps you'd be better giving this a miss. Also, a part of me wondered if the subtitles showing what the raccoons were thinking somehow inspired the Minions from the recent 'Despicable Me' films? but maybe that's just me lol.… Expand

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Spitbot

Jun 8, 2018

"The Great Outdoors" is completely bog-standard, and more or less what you'd expect, which isn't to say it's very good. The humor is all low-brow, which isn't always a bad thing, but with no elegance, charm, or nuance, the movie seems lost and rarely warrants a chuckle. Most scenes around"The Great Outdoors" is completely bog-standard, and more or less what you'd expect, which isn't to say it's very good. The humor is all low-brow, which isn't always a bad thing, but with no elegance, charm, or nuance, the movie seems lost and rarely warrants a chuckle. Most scenes around the middle of the film feel completely unnecessary and are loosely strung together by as little plot as you can get away with. Think back to any Adam Sandler movie from the past decade or so and you'll catch my drift.

If you're here for a heart-warming family drama, be advised that almost every character is either one-dimensional or entirely unlikable, and most of them don't get any development until the last twenty minutes of the film. Until then, it mostly consists of John Candy yelling and falling down while the supporting cast makes fun of hot dogs.

Overall, definitely not my cup of tea. It felt just like that Christmas Vacation sequel where Eddie runs up and down the beach for an hour.… Expand

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