John Hughes's attempt to cash in on the success of the previous year's adult comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles backfires in this routine outing. John Candy, the obnoxious one in the aforementioned Planes, gets to be the nice guy this time around, finding himself stuck on vacation with his appalling brother-in-law, Dan Aykroyd. The two stars do their best, but Hughes's script is a mechanical retread of past glories and director Howard Deutch fails to bring much inspiration to the lumbering slapstick. Look out for a pre-stardom Annette Bening in a supporting role.

It's vacation time for outdoorsy Chicago man Chet Ripley, along with his wife, Connie, and their two kids, Buck and Ben. But a serene weekend of fishing at a Wisconsin lakeside cabin gets crashed by Connie's obnoxious brother-in-law, Roman Craig, his wife, Kate, and the couple's two daughters. As the excursion wears on, the Ripleys find themselves at odds with the stuffy Craig family.