It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Chevy Chase and Madolyn Smith Osborne star in this 1988 comedy based on the book. This tells of sports writer, Andy Farmer (Chase) and his wife, Elizabeth (Osborne) who give up city life and move to the country in small, Vermont town, Red Bud. Soon, things go terribly wrong for them when meeting odd, new people, getting into mishaps and finding unexpected things on their property. Andy also tries writing a novel and when Elizabeth decides to write too, they drift apart. I watched this growing up and always liked it. Chase is great as usual, he & Madolyn have good chemistry and the late, Elmer Bernstein's score is great as well. I recommend this good 80's comedy.

I pulled this dusty VHS off the shelf today and felt a faint stirring of disgust. Never one to balk at a mystery, I sat down with my old pal IMDb to figure out why I had such an aversion to this movie when everything about this movie should add up to being a 10-star masterpiece for my tastes. Here are things I really love in movies, and that this movie has:1. Chevy Chase2. Light/slapstick comedy 3. 80s comedy 4. Fish-out-of-water story 5. "living the dream" plot 6. I can relate to it (we moved city-to-farm in real life) 7. Animal/outdoor humor 8. Beautiful settingThis should be the perfect movie for me. So what on earth is it that makes me so reluctant to like this movie? I finally figured it out: I don't actually LIKE any of the characters - everyone in this movie seemed so very mean spirited and just plain grumpy. There really wasn't anyone to "root for" at all. I didn't care whether they stayed in the town, stayed married, moved away, got divorced, or even abducted by aliens and never seen again 2/3 of the way through the movie? I really like movies that allow me to enjoy and feel for the characters - this one was very VERY lacking in that department.I'm glad I finally figured it out. Next time I pull that VHS off the shelf, I hope to remember exactly why I should put it right back up again.

I like this movie a lot, and I do not like Chevy Chase, who cannot manage attempting to be "funny" in any of his movies without animal abuse. NOT FUNNY, Chevy! Madolyn Smith is wonderful. I agree with others that she is an underrated actress; she seems very natural and most likable.The chemistry between the two main actors is great. You buy that Andy Farmer is a couple of bubbles off center and that Elizabeth is along for the ride; she loves him but keeps her head amid the chaos of crushed expectations.One of my favorite parts is Elizabeth's predicament in having to read Andy's novel when she intended a different evening. Wives everywhere will identify with her hands-over-face tears when she is trapped between her support for her mate and the awfulness of his writing.Andy Farmer is a big lumbering Labrador Retriever of a character. He is all bounds and tale wagging and happy panting; until he meets the town folk who don't see themselves as dog toys. The citizens of Redbud just live their lives, lives grown odd through generations of isolation, no doubt, and they see no reason to change just because a happy puppy romps among them.I love the whole Christmas scenario...and the fact that smarter heads than Chase's opted to not let the ducks get shot out of the sky and drop at his feet. I'm sure that's what he would have suggested, like the cat in Christmas Vacation. George Roy Hill had much more depth than Chase and knew not to play this flick for sadistic cheap laughs; except, I just remembered, the scalded bird. Again, NOT FUNNY, Chevy!This movie would have been good with anyone in Chase's role; Smith carries the movie and several good male actors come to mind who could have handled the part of Andy Farmer well...with no mistreatment of animals at all!

This Chevy Chase film had potential to be a really funny movie. Unfortunately, poor choices for moving the story along doom this one to being an unmemorable mediocre comedy. Still, there are some laughs to be had in this film about a couple who move to the country with rather disastrous results. Most of the more funny scenes though occur at the beginning of the film, as the film progresses though it becomes more and more bland. Chevy's character is a writer who once he arrives in the country develops a rather bad case of writer's block. This initially interesting and led to a funny scene involving a singing bird. However, this is also what ends up shooting the film down in flames as this leads to a dispute between Chevy's character and his wife. A very unfunny set of scenes that set the movie into even less funny scenes as they decide to sell their newly acquired home. Still, the scene involving the couple going to the restaurant, the scene involving them trying to get a dog and the scene about the fishing trip are funny and make the movie rise to a bit higher level before the second half of the movie sort of crashes the movie down.