The Adventures of the Wilderness Family

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.

This movie was on repeat when I was a kid and shaped my dreams heavily. It was pure magic back then.

I just watched it for the first time as an adult (Who has spent a lot of energy on wilderness skills and lives in the woods) with my kids and... the magic definitely seems to be relegated to my childhood. Sadly, I spent the entire time poking holes in the plot.

That said, If anyone knows where exactly the lake where it filmed was, I would love to know. It would be a childhood dream to be able to make it out there. I saw somewhere that it's in Gunnison National Forest in CO but that's the most detail I've been able to get.

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.

This is a good concept of a film, but unfortunately the execution falls flat.

Los Angeles family moves abruptly, not because of crime or overpopulation, but SMOG. (that smog will get you every time). They blindly move into an isolated section of the wilderness 25 minutes away from the nearest people. The parents apparently didn't do their homework because their house is a rundown one-room shack that makes Charles Ingalls' house look like a mansion in comparison. But wouldn't you just know, the father is a man-of-all-trades (just like Ingalls), so he's able to build a new house.

The entire rest of the film is filled with lots of shouting. And YELLING. And SCREAMING. And ARGUING. And SHRIEKING. Did I mention the shouting, because there is a lot of it. You really think these people would tone it down now that they are just by themselves and would seemingly value their peace and quiet, but I suppose not. Oh, and wild animals. Lots of befriending wild animals and running from wild animals. If you like shouting or wild animals, this is the flick for you.

Obviously, there's no large cast with this film. The father does lots of YELLING. The mother is acceptable, if not bland. The daughter alternates between being in a seeming euphoria and positively SHRIEKING at the top of her lungs when she is in danger. The boy is young and has vast difficulty carrying his end of the load.

Despite all of this, the movie does have a few redeeming qualities. The scenery provides for some spectacular shots. The movie also does a good job of portraying animals as living things and explaining the value of befriending them or respecting their territory. The father does kill a moose, but explains to his son they had to because they needed to eat and not because the dad wanted to mount its head on the wall.