''Gone Fishin'' is a 1997 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

starring

Joe Pesci Joseph Frank Pesci ( , ; born February 9, 1943) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for portraying tough, volatile characters, in a variety of genres, and for his collaborations with his best friend, Robert De Niro in the films ' ...

and

Danny Glover Danny Glover ( ; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, producer, and political activist. Over his career he has received List of awards and nominations received by Danny Glover, numerous accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian A ...

as two bumbling

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

enthusiasts.

Nick Brimble Nicholas Brimble (born 22 July 1944) is an English actor whose long career has spanned theatre, television, film, and voice work. Early life Brimble was born in Bristol. His father was a schoolteacher who was also a keen amateur actor, an acti ...

Rosanna Arquette Rosanna Lisa Arquette (; born August 10, 1959) is an American actress. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film '' The Executioner's Song'' (1982) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for th ...

Lynn Whitfield Lynn Whitfield (''née'' Smith; born February 15, 1953) is an American actress. She began her acting career in television and theatre before progressing to supporting roles in film. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a ...

, and

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

co-star. It is the only collaboration between Glover and Pesci outside of the ''

Lethal Weapon ''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Shane Black. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan. In ''Lethal Weapon'', a pai ...

'' franchise.

Christopher Cain Christopher Cain (born October 29, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Cain was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1969, he married Sharon Thomas, and adopted her two sons, Roger and Dean Cain, Dean. The couple's daug ...

directed the film. J. J. Abrams and Jill Mazursky wrote the film's script. The film was released on May 30, 1997. It was panned by critics and was a

box-office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

, grossing just $19 million against its $53 million budget.

Plot

Joe Waters and Gus Green are bumbling, blue-collar, yet happy best friends and next door neighbors who live modestly in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

and have known each other since childhood. They share the hobby of fishing and win a stay in the Florida Everglades to go

angling Angling (from Old English ''angol'', meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless te ...

, but promise to return home in time for Thanksgiving. On the way, however, while stopping at a restaurant, they meet an Englishman, Martin, who discreetly steals Joe's car keys and leaves. Joe and Gus are forced to push their boat down the road until they are met by two women, Rita and Angie, who are after Martin and offer them a lift. During the ride, a bump causes the boat to disconnect from the car, leaving Joe and Gus stranded yet again, and the boat is accidentally hooked to a train and pulled away along with their beer and supplies. Joe and Gus hitch a ride with two men, but on the way, they see their car at a gas station and investigate. Joe goes to confront Martin inside the bathroom, but backs down when he catches Martin loading a gun. Joe and Gus flee the petrol station in their car, and discover a blood-stained knife in the dashboard. Joe and Gus stay at a trailer park for the night, and while watching a documentary on television, they learn that Martin is actually Dekker Massey, a wanted criminal who has conned several women out of their riches and is implied to have stabbed his last victim to death and hidden her money and jewelry somewhere. The presenters offer a bounty for Dekker's capture, and Joe and Gus decide to turn in the knife after their fishing trip. Meanwhile, Dekker begins hunting Joe and Gus down. Following a recommendation by the trailer park owner, Joe and Gus visit Phil Beasly's boatyard and rent a speedboat, but end up breaking almost every gadget on the boat, losing the knife and wrecking the boatyard by accident. Distraught, they decide to return home early, but end up with a flat tire. While getting the spare tire from the trunk, Joe discovers a map that leads to Dekker's fortune. They book a room in a nearby hotel, and while having dinner, they are found by Rita and Angie, who question them about Dekker and reveal that they are after him because Rita's mother was one of Dekker's victims. Joe and Gus promise to bring Dekker to justice, but that night, Gus sleepwalks and starts a fire in the hotel, destroying their suite and the map. They only barely manage to escape undetected, though their car breaks down on the road and Joe is struck by lightning while they try to fix it. Instead of killing him, the lightning boosts Joe's memory and he is able to lead the way to the cave where Dekker hid his fortune. Despite an altercation with an alligator, they retrieve the treasure and escape, but are accosted by Dekker. At gunpoint, Dekker forces them to push Joe's car into the swamp and ties them up inside a sheriff's office, intending to flee the country with the treasure. After Dekker leaves, however, Joe and Gus are found and freed by their idol, Billy "Catch" Pooler, and they set out to stop Dekker. After a long chase across the swamp, Joe and Gus find and capture Dekker moments before his escape via plane and hand him over to the police. Though they claim the reward money, Joe and Gus are forced to spend it mostly on the damages they caused during their trip.

Cast

as Joe Waters ** Frank Nasso as Young Joe *

as Gus Green ** Norman D. Golden II as Young Gus *

as Rita, the daughter of one of Dekker Massey's victims *

as Angie, Rita's best friend *

as Billy "Catch" Pooler, a professional fisherman who is Joe and Gus's idol *

as Dekker Massey, a British conman *

Carol Kane Carolyn Laurie Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress. She gained recognition for her role in '' Hester Street'' (1975), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She became known in the 1970s and 1980s in ...

as Donna Waters, Joe's wife *

Gary Grubbs Jon Gary Grubbs (born November 14, 1949) is an American character actor who has appeared in 178 credited shows and films since the 1970s and is still working steadily. He is best known as Captain Steven Wiecek in ''For Love and Honor'' (1983-19 ...

as Phil Beasly, the owner of a boatyard * Edythe Davis as Cookie Green, Gus's wife * Jenna Bari as Gena Waters, Joe's daughter *

Raynor Scheine Raynor Scheine (born Raynor Johnston; January 19, 1942) is an American actor who has appeared in films for three decades dating back to 1979, including '' My Cousin Vinny'' and ''Fried Green Tomatoes.'' His name is a play on the phrase "rain or ...

as Glenn, the owner of a trailer park *

Maury Chaykin Maury Alan Chaykin (July 27, 1949 – July 27, 2010) was an American-Canadian actor. Described as "one of the most recognizable faces in Canadian cinema," he was best known for his portrayal of Rex Stout's detective Nero Wolfe on the televi ...

as Kirk, a waiter who takes a shine to Joe and Gus (uncredited) *

Louise Fletcher Estelle Louise Fletcher (July 22, 1934 – September 23, 2022) was an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of the antagonist Nurse Ratched in the film '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1975), which earned her numero ...

as Suzy, a restaurant owner (uncredited) * Ron Duprat as Firefighter

Production

When ''Gone Fishin'' was in the early stages of development during the early 1990s, the roles of Joe and Gus were first offered to

John Candy John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canadian actor and comedian who is best known for his work in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood films. Candy first rose to national prominence in the 1970s as a member of the Tor ...

and

Rick Moranis Frederick Allan Moranis (; born April 18, 1953) is a Canadian actor, comedian, musician, producer, songwriter and writer. Moranis appeared in the sketch comedy series '' Second City Television'' (''SCTV'') in the 1980s and starred afterward in s ...

. Both turned it down as they were busy with other projects. Once the film was given the greenlight in 1995,

and

were eventually cast as the leads.

John G. Avildsen John Guilbert Avildsen (December 21, 1935 – June 16, 2017) was an American film director. He is best known for directing ''Rocky'' (1976), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Director. He is also renowned for directing the first three f ...

was set to direct and had already filmed it for the first two weeks, but he was fired from Disney and paid his $2 million salary to the studio;

immediately signed on to replace him. The production went over-schedule and over-budget, eventually coming in at a final cost of $53 million. Most of the movie was filmed around

The Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kis ...

and the Big Cypress Swamp in Florida. As with many of Pesci's 1990s films, Pesci's friend, employee and former Four Seasons guitarist Tommy DeVito makes a cameo appearance.

Filming accident

During production of the film,

stuntwoman A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...

Janet Wilder was killed when a boat that was made to jump a ramp into a group of other boats in one of the scenes went awry. Instead of completing that stunt, the speedboat containing Pesci and Glover's

stunt double In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes for another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...

s flipped upside down and collided with two separate boats, landing into the set containing film crew and extras where it struck Wilder and killed her. Wilder's husband and father-in-law as well as two others were also injured.

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film opened at #3 at the U.S. box office behind '' The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' and '' Addicted to Love'', earning $5.8 million. The film eventually made $19.7 million domestically.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film holds an approval rating of 4% based on 27 reviews, with an average score of 2.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Sloppy, formulaic, and unfunny, ''Gone Fishin'' marks a painful low point in the careers of its two talented leads". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Film critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

gave the film a "BOMB" rating, his lowest rating. He called it "an annoyingly unfunny gambit" and declared that it was a waste of Pesci and Glover's talent, and "this film really smells". Film critic Chris Hicks of the ''

Salt Lake Tribune ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History ...

'' said after ''Gone Fishin'' and ''

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag ''8 Heads in a Duffel Bag'' is a 1997 black comedy film starring Joe Pesci, Kristy Swanson and David Spade. It was the directorial debut of screenwriter Tom Schulman. The film was a box office disappointment and received negative reviews from crit ...

'' that "the Academy should have asked Pesci to return the Oscar he had won for '' Goodfellas''". In ''Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon'', Joe Queenan said that he was "so embarrassed about Joe Pesci that he has been known to wait outside cinemas showing a film called ''Gone Fishin'' and give those few customers who sat through it their money back, on behalf of the "American Celluloid Retribution Society". The film also received two nominations at the 1997

Stinkers Bad Movie Awards The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards (formerly known as the ''Hastings Bad Cinema Society'') was a Los Angeles–based group of film buffs and film critics devoted to honoring the worst films of the year. The society was founded by Mike Lancaster and R ...

: Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy and Worst Actor for Pesci.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gone Fishin' (Film) 1990s adventure comedy films 1990s American films 1990s buddy comedy films 1990s English-language films 1997 films American adventure comedy films American buddy comedy films American screwball comedy films American slapstick comedy films Caravan Pictures films English-language adventure comedy films English-language buddy comedy films Films about fishing Films directed by Christopher Cain Films produced by Roger Birnbaum Films scored by Randy Edelman Films set in Florida Films with screenplays by J. J. Abrams Hollywood Pictures films