Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.
Freddy the gym teacher has to teach remedial English in summer (high) school, if he wants tenure. As he can only teach gym and his students want fun, emphasis is on "field trips" - until he's fired unless all his students pass the test.
A minor league baseball player has to spend thirty million dollars in thirty days, in order to inherit three hundred million dollars. However, he's not allowed to tell anyone about the deal.
Lawrence is a rich kid with a bad accent and a large debt. After his father refuses to help him out, Lawrence escapes his angry debtors by jumping on a Peace Corp flight to Southeast Asia, ... See full summary »
Jack Chester, an overworked air traffic controller, takes his family on vacation to the beach. Things immediately start to go wrong for the Chesters, and steadily get worse. Jack ends up in a feud with a local yachtsman, and has to race him to regain his pride and family's respect.Written by
Rob Hartill
Near the end of the boat race, the Barnacle is supposedly last. Yet, when they pick up speed from the unexpected wind, you can clearly see a boat behind them with a rainbow-colored spinnaker. This may or may not have been the Incisor from "future" scenes in the film. See more »
Quotes
Vicki:
Can I have your honest opinion about something?
[lifts bikini top]
Vicki:
What do you think of these? Well, how do they look?
Jack Chester:
Uh, similar?
See more »
Alternate Versions
There are many scenes that were cut from the movie that mostly dealt with the development of John Candy's character and the family before the vacation. There is about 5 minutes snipped out of the first 15-20 min of the film. They include:
Jack Chester pulling over to the side of the highway, telling the kids that the car is not moving until he has five seconds of silence.
Also on the way to Citrus Cove, Florida, they get fast food. The dog farts at this time, causing the family to stick their heads out the window.
When they arrive at the "wrong" house, they shows snips here and there through the course of their stay of Archie "the dog" chewing the leg off the couch.
Then, after Jack Chester unloads the trailer, there is another deleted scene involving Bobby and Jennifer about who gets the color TV.
Also, before they leave the house, Dan Gardner, "the owner" of the wrong house, they are staying at tells them that it is their house and not the Chesters', you see both of their expressions as to what they are felling at that moment when he and Jack Chester are in disagreement.
When the family leaves to go to the right house, Jack Chester says, "Have a nice summer". Following that, the two owners that own the house laugh and the couch breaks (a result of Archie's gnawing on the couch leg) and they fall backwards.
Finally, the scene where they arrive at the Barnacle for their dinner, there is a scene added to fill in for the edited scene where Laurie says, "This place sucks," instead of showing that they added a very brief scene of Rip Torn's character "Scully" approaching their table.
John Candy's wit and humor shines through as Jack Chester, the over worked air traffic controller who reluctantly takes a vacation to the beach with his family. The laughs keep coming as Jack and his family spend the summer at the beach with many mishaps occurring throughout the movie. The movie is about family and new friends pulling together, working side by side, believing in a dream and achieving an impossible goal. We've watched this movie many times, but we still laugh and feel good when the movie ends. The standing joke at our home, when we eat dinner out at a restaurant that passes off breaded fish as an expensive seafood item with a fancy name, is "Look - it's Scully's Catch of the day"! This movie is good, clean, family fun - entertainment for the entire family!
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
John Candy's wit and humor shines through as Jack Chester, the over worked air traffic controller who reluctantly takes a vacation to the beach with his family. The laughs keep coming as Jack and his family spend the summer at the beach with many mishaps occurring throughout the movie. The movie is about family and new friends pulling together, working side by side, believing in a dream and achieving an impossible goal. We've watched this movie many times, but we still laugh and feel good when the movie ends. The standing joke at our home, when we eat dinner out at a restaurant that passes off breaded fish as an expensive seafood item with a fancy name, is "Look - it's Scully's Catch of the day"! This movie is good, clean, family fun - entertainment for the entire family!