Gone Fishin'

Gone Fishin' is a 1997 American slapstick comedy film directed by Christopher Cain and starring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover as two lifelong fishing buddies from Newark, New Jersey, whose prize vacation to the Florida Everglades turns into a chase after a con artist. It was produced by Hollywood Pictures in association with Caravan Pictures and released on May 30, 1997.^{1 • 2}

Cast and crew

Joe Pesci and Danny Glover head the cast as Joe Waters and Gus Green, reuniting on screen after appearing together in two Lethal Weapon sequels; they would appear in a third sequel the following year.⁸ Rosanna Arquette plays Rita, Lynn Whitfield plays Angie, Nick Brimble plays Dekker Massey, and Willie Nelson has a small role as the boys' fishing hero, Billy "Catch" Pooler.^{1 • 9} Gary Grubbs, Carol Kane, and Edythe Davis appear in supporting roles.¹⁰

Behind the camera, Roger Birnbaum and Julie Bergman Sender produced, Dean Semler was the cinematographer, Jack Hofstra edited, Lawrence Miller was production designer, and Randy Edelman composed the score.² The screenplay is credited to Jill Mazursky Cody and Jeffrey Abrams, the latter better known as J.J. Abrams.²

Production

The project had a long development. It was initially developed as a vehicle for John Candy and Rick Moranis, but after Candy's death in 1994 it moved forward with Pesci and Glover.¹¹ The script had circulated for some time as Disney approached various other actors before settling on its leads.⁸

A director change mid-shoot. The original director, Oscar winner John G. Avildsen, filmed for the first two weeks before he was fired by the studio and replaced by Christopher Cain.⁸ The British Film Institute credits both Cain and Avildsen as directors on the finished film.¹²

A fatal stunt. During production, a stunt went awry and killed the stuntwoman Janet Wilder and injured her team members, her husband Scott and her father-in-law Glenn; the end credits carry a dedication to her.^{8 • 7} The Los Angeles Times review noted that the crash sequence of boats was among the stunts involved.⁹

Disney shelved the finished production for almost a year before transferring distribution to its Hollywood Pictures branch, and the film moved on and off the studio's release schedule several times.^{8 • 7} Location filming took place in the Everglades and nearby towns, including Everglades City, a community of about 700 people.¹

Box office

The film opened wide on May 30, 1997 in 1,841 theaters, earning $5,784,123 over its opening weekend and ranking third for the frame.^{3 • 5} Weekly grosses fell steeply, dropping 49 percent in the second weekend, and the film ran an average of 5.4 weeks per theater before leaving release in mid-September.⁵ It finished with a domestic gross of $19,745,922 and no international release, so the domestic total equaled the worldwide total.³ Against a reported $53 million budget, the film returned well under its production cost.^{4 • 13} Inflation-adjusted, the domestic gross corresponds to about $48.7 million in later dollars.⁵

Reception

Critics reviewed the film harshly. Rotten Tomatoes records a 4 percent Tomatometer from 26 reviews, with a critics consensus calling it "sloppy, formulaic, and unfunny" and "a painful low point in the careers of its two talented leads"; the audience Popcornmeter stood at 37 percent.⁶ Gene Seymour's Los Angeles Times review called it "a mirthless, graceless slapstick comedy" and speculated that the film existed because someone liked the Pesci-Glover chemistry in the Lethal Weapon movies.⁹ The Deseret News critic Chris Hicks wrote that Pesci and Glover, trying to make like Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, had no comic chemistry, and judged the destruction comedy tedious.⁷ Leonard Maltin's guide rated the film a BOMB.¹⁴ Pesci was nominated for a Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Actor for 1997.¹³

Audience ratings have been more forgiving than the critics': IMDb users give the film 4.9 out of 10 from about 11,000 votes, and some later viewers describe it as a lighthearted family slapstick movie.^{6 • 15} The film was released on home video in late 1997 and has since appeared on streaming services and on a Kino Lorber Blu-ray.^{16 • 8}

References

1. Gone Fishin' (film), D23 (Official Disney Archives)
2. Gone Fishin' (1997), AFI Catalog
3. Gone Fishin' (1997), Box Office Mojo
4. Gone Fishin', Cinegraph
5. Gone Fishin' (1997), The Numbers
6. Gone Fishin', Rotten Tomatoes
7. Film review: Gone Fishin', Deseret News, June 6, 1997
8. Review: Gone Fishin' (1997), Cinema Retro
9. 'Gone Fishin' Only Hooks the Stars, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1997
10. Gone Fishin': Full Cast & Crew, Rotten Tomatoes
11. Gone Fishin' (1997): A Troubled and Tragic Production, Bomb Report
12. Gone Fishin' (1997), British Film Institute
13. Feature Films Made in Beaufort County: Gone Fishin' (1997), Beaufort County Library
14. Leonard Maltin's 2010 Movie Guide
15. Gone Fishin' (1997), IMDb
16. Gone Fishin', Video Librarian

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 1995 to 1999 › Black and satirical comedies › Released 1995 to 1998

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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