The Adventures of the Wilderness Family

The kids will enjoy this enough, but parents beware! This will be a difficult two hours. The cinematography is passable, it's just the dialog and the acting that make this movie tough to tolerate. The family -- the father, really -- grows tired of the big city, so he decides to lug his family into some beyond-isolated mountain valley. How the actual decision to leave is made is just annoyingly laughable.

The credits base the story on actual events, but given the range of things they throw at you, you wonder just how much artistic license the film takes. How many times can you be attacked by a bear and not figure out something is wrong? If you are watching the movie via VCR, DVR or DVD, slow-mo on the window during the bear-attacks-the-cabin scene and you'll see a man in a really bad bear costume.

The film meanders from plot twist to plot twist without any real direction and by the time you've made it through the fourth or the fifth twist, you begin to hope it ends soon. But it doesn't.

I remember seeing this movie on TV when I was a kid, and I am sorry I saw it again. You just don't watch a movie with a critical eye when you're 7. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the memories.

I loved this film as a child - and was brought up in the Rocky Mountains, backpacking with my Dad, and can relate to the feeling of wanting to drop everything and "head for the hills."

Have seen the movie and its sequel recently, I can still say it is a movie I would love for my children to watch and love. It is wholesome, family value oriented, and in general, a great joy for kids. It makes you want to go out camping and enjoy what little wilderness we have left in the US.

While I do have to agree with other posters that you simply can't "up and leave" as they do in this film (ie - no preparation re: hunting, fishing, planting, learning, etc.), you just can't fit all that into a film. And it would bore the kids to death. It is a family/children's film, after all, not an adult action flick.

I highly recommend this film to anyone with children.

I thought this movie was a fine, clean motion picture with action and adventure. I appreciated the high moral values portrayed in this entertaining film. If you are looking for a picture to enjoy with your family(small children included) for an evening, then I would recommend this one.

So many bad reviews! Why? I loved this as a kid-OK so maybe now it's not my favorite but being that this movie stayed with me as a kid and helped fuel my interest in movies I'd say there was plenty of good to this.

What I liked best about it was the adventure. In these times, a movie like this would never be made at all, or at least not without computer generated monsters chasing the family and lots of car chases. The best thing about this movie is it's earthiness and tranquility. The feeling of being in the middle of nowhere-I can appreciate all types of environments but there is something so beautiful about being in the country when it's perfectly still with just yourself and the environment. In this movie that feeling is created beautifully, it touches the nature and quiet, country feeling. The scenery and country feeling created is beautiful.

It is also not boring at all as this family struggles to make it out in the middle of nowhere.Lots of wildlife and lots of Action packed adventure.Lots of adversities to overcome. And as mentioned, the cinematography is great-you'll feel like your out there in the wilderness too!

I'm not saying this is the best movie in the world-but for those who can appreciate a story revolving around a family and their struggles out in the wilderness it's great. I was enamored as a kid. I wanted to be out there with them! I think this is a good movie and would give it at least an 8. Of coarse it wont appeal to everyone but shouldn't be forgotten either.

I saw this film from what my father told me about it; I like watching cheese, and from what he'd said, this is CHEESE. As people started moving into the mid-1970s, they were leaving behind the hippie-dippy daze, getting into more sophisticated drugs, then becoming clean corporate slaves. Everyone began forgetting how wonderful the earth was because they were too busy drilling it for oil or tearing down trees to make room for our growing population. This film's answer?? Make a senseless decision involving your entire family by moving into a wooded area you know NOTHING about where there's no help for miles and you have no skills dealing with wild animals, baking from ABSOLUTE scratch, hunting, etc. We went from the streets of L.A. to the hills of the Rockies in less than two minutes. Were there books taken out of the library on survival techniques in the wilderness? Did the family take shooting lessons? Was there any talk on food, such as how are we going to grow a garden or bake bread or fish or hunt? If there was, we weren't allowed to see it. We are supposed to believe that this family knew all this, that they had a thriving garden in the city, that the woman could bake bread without so much as a wooden spoon, and that the father had been shooting at the neighbor's cat regularly. The only reason the mother and father had had kids is for the cute factor alone, though it fails miserably at the feigned feel of it all. The little boy sounds like he's reading lines but can't read yet, and the daughter seems drugged into a dazed happiness about everything. Their dog Crust (is that honestly his name?? Crust???) must have attacked wild animals at home as well, seeing as he attacks EVERYTHING in this film; it's surprising he doesn't mutilate flowers if they move too much in the wind, becoming a threat to the family. Here are some things that make me refuse to have suspension of belief: ~The father fly-fishes. He is NOT going to feed a family of 4 on fly fishing. That's called sport, not necessity. ~The dog survives brutal attacks of wolves, bears, and MOUNTAIN LIONS. Something is wrong when a domestic dog from the city makes it out alive in those circumstances with barely a scratch. ~How much does a contruction worker make? Enough to ensure a plane to bring supplies every so often? How about when he has no more job and makes no more money? ~A 10 to 13 year old girl would never outrun a bear. ~Just from my own opinion, I would have lost all faith in myself, my family, and my dog to be able to survive in this place with the attitude and lack of planning that this family accomplished.

Reviews of the plot aside, I'm thinking of starting a drinking game. It's called "Take a shot everytime you see the boom mike."