The Great Outdoors

I adore "The Great Outdoors". This is one of my favorite John Candy movies of all time. Yeah it is no Shakespeare but I wouldn't have it any other way. Dan Ackroyd plays the obnoxious brother-in-law who crashes John Candy's family vacation up in the woods at a cozy little resort. Dan brings his neglected wife played by Annette Benning and their identical twin daughters who are bit on the scary side. The results is a non-stop laugh riot. No many how many times I have watched this film, I still find myself laughing uncontrollably, especially when the raccoons comes out at night to raid the trash cans. I loved it when the young raccoon is told what hot dogs are made of. Anyone familiar with Doug Seuss's bears would know that this is one of the films that the late Bart the Bear made as the bald-headed bear. I loved the final interaction between John Candy's character and the bald-headed bear. It is one of the funniest scenes in the film, next to the water-skiing scene. One of the classic moments in the film is when the entire family goes out to dinner and John Candy decides to order the ol' 96er (this enormous chunk of beef). I personally love "The Great Outdoors". It remains one of my favorite movies from the '80s. It is pure physical comedy.