The Great Outdoors 1988

John Candy plays a humble family man who rents a lakeside cottage, hoping to share a few lasting memories with his kids in the same haunts he once explored as a younger man. Dan Aykroyd, his obnoxious brother-in-law, catches wind of the trip and tags along, inserting his own uninvited family to the festivities and spoiling the fun. It's perfect casting for each part: Candy as the humble and chummy father who good-naturedly eats a mountain of abuse to avoid offending his kin, Aykroyd as the dick-swinging Wall Street a-hole who isn't above taking advantage of a little insincere hospitality. John Hughes wrote the screenplay, narrowly passing on the chance to direct, and it smacks of his typical hallmarks. The humor is more than a touch over-the-top, the working class ethos front and center, the rampant sentimentality applied in extra-thick layers.

The good bits work extremely well, delivering laughs and lingering in the memory banks for decades (if you've seen this one, you'll never forget the bald bear, or the human lightning rod, or the ninety-six ounce steak dinner), but the plot is wobbly and there isn't much structure to tie everything together. It plays like a collection of themed skits, sharing a locale and a cast of characters, but rarely pressing toward a mutual conclusion. Were it not for the charismatic talents of the twin leads, The Great Outdoors might fall apart completely.