I’m constantly being bombarded by people telling him “you haven’t seen ____? You gotta check it out.” Or hearing critics rave “this movie is a classic, a must see.” So I decided that from now on every time I actually watch one of these flicks, I’ll write my take on whether the film lived up to the hype or fell short.
So, what’s the deal with The Great Outdoors?
I feel like The Great Outdoors is a spiritual predecessor of Uncle Buck. Both films written by John Hughes & starring John Candy released about a year apart. The two movies do have rather varying tones. Uncle Buck is directed by Hughes and is an overall more heartwarming experience. The Great Outdoors is more closely related to 80’s comedies.
The story is perfect for a comedy. John Candy and Dan Aykroyd play brother-in-laws who have very different ways of thinking about life. Aykroyd’s character is an investment broker who values money above all and Candy plays a regular guy who is just excited to be able to take his family to a cabin in Wisconsin that his father took him to when he was young. This creates a lot of conflict that usually ends up in a lot of humorous arguments.
John Candy is great in the film, as is true with every movie I’ve seen featuring him. Dan Aykroyd is also a worthy addition. I feel like Aykroyd is best when he plays roles where he straddles being likable. This role reminded me a lot of his character in Tommy Boy: a loud, opinionated business man that plays a stark contrast to both John Candy and Chris Farley’s characters.
There are numerous memorable scenes in the movie. Candy tells a ridiculous horror story about a bear and there are some reoccurring raccoons that are subtitled which were highlights of the movie. There is a B plot of a teen summer romance between the actor playing Candy’s son who meets a local girl and slowly breaks down barriers that she set in place to protect herself from getting hurt by passerbys in a vacation town. It’s done pretty well, but definitely comes off entirely separate from the main plot.
The only part of the movie I didn’t like was the ending. Aykroyd’s character has twin daughters who get lost and the two men must put aside their differences to save them. The scene take place in the midst of them working towards a better understanding of each other, so it seems almost unnecessary. I probably wouldn’t have disliked the scene so much if the children playing the twins weren’t such bad actors. For most of the movie they are silent, and when they talk during this scene, it’s easy to see why.
Overall, I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes eighties comedies or is a fan of John Candy. The Great Outdoors shows a bit of its age now, but is a good example of the old style of comedy that was prevalent at the time it was released.