The Great Outdoors (1988)

It’s January, and the weather is crappy. I'm thinking it's time for a salute to summer.

Summer Movie #1

Synopsis: It’s a lot like Summer Rental, except John Candy and his middle-class family stay at a lakefront cottage in Minnesota instead of an oceanfront beach house.

Blurb From the VHS Jacket: “When an unannounced, uninvited and unwelcome family of fun-loving misfits converge upon a lakeside resort to join their relatives for a summer of relaxation, the result is anything but restive in this raucous comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and John Candy.”

What Did I Learn?: Hotdogs are made from lips and assholes.

You Might Like This Movie If: You always felt it was a crying shame that Wally Walrus could never enjoy his barbecues in peace.

Really?: 1) So wait, Aykroyd’s wife had no idea he lost his trader’s license two years earlier and the family is broke? 2) John Candy places a chocolate bar on the hood of his car in order to attract bears from the local dump. Who the hell would actually do that?

Rating: Candy and Aykroyd enjoy some great comedic chemistry as a couple of brothers-in-law who really don’t like each other. The Great Outdoors is an interesting post-Brat Pack John Hughes film (he later re-used the bat scene in Christmas Vacation, and Candy's bunch almost feels like the Griswald clan), although it’s a bit low-brow in places (the raccoon scenes are lame), while the teen romance stuff is pointless, unfunny and slows down the story. 7.5/10 stars.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095253/