City Slickers (1991)

Billy Crystal, Bruno Kirby, Daniel Stern, and Jack Palance shine in this very funny movie about 3 "City Slickers" who are disillusioned with their lives and decide to participate in a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado in order to "find themselves." There aren't many comedies which are relevant to real life, and "City Slickers" is one of them. There aren't many comedies which emphasise the importance of life, love, friendship, humour, and acceptance but again, "City Slickers" is one of them. This is one of those rare diamonds of a film which will make us laugh, make us think, and make us take stock of our own lives. You would be extraordinarily hard to please if you didn't find this movie enjoyable.

This new release of City Slickers will have a bunch of new special features:

-audio commentary from director Ron Underwood and stars Billy Crystal and Daniel Stern (Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance are no longer living)

-4 featurettes

. . . "Back in the Saddle: City Slickers Revisited"

. . . "Bringing in the Script: Writing City Slickers"

. . . "A Star is Born: An Ode to Norman" (Norman being the calf Mitch adopts)

. . . "The Real City Slickers"

-2 deleted scenes: "Releasing the Herd" and "A New Job"

City Slickers, like most of the comedies I like best, works both as a vehicle for some pretty good humor and as a drama with heart, with something real at stake. Mitch (Billy Crystal) and his two best friends (Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby) are each having midlife crises in their own ways. In an effort to find themselves they join a two-week dude cattle drive adventure where they do indeed surpass their former boundaries and find more about who they really are. Jack Palance plays Curly, the imposing, tough-as-cowhide, scene-stealing trail boss. The setting allows for endless jokes about cowboys and related matters, as well as some wry comments on human nature. All the principle actors are in top form.

I've always enjoyed this movie and look forward to the new features, especially the commentary. Looks like it will be a worthy special edition. I'd give the movie four or maybe four-and-a-half stars, but I'll round up for the special features.

Buy City Slickers (1991) Now

These three guys well, these three city slickers decide that a 2-week cattle drive is just what each needs to come to terms with their own individual crises and they get the boss-man from hell, Jack Palance (who won an Oscar for this role). Slapstick in the beginning, it becomes more serious in the middle, then a sentimental wind-down toward a bittersweet ending.

Excellent!

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This is one of those great comedies that also speaks to the great truths of life. I have watched this film over and over again and am always left with a wonderful feeling after having watched it. It lifts my spirits when I am low and helps to remind me what is truly important in life.

Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal), Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) and Ed Furillo (Bruno Kirby) are three friends approaching mid-life at break neck speed. Each year they go on increasingly more dangerous adventures which Mitch's wife (Patricia Wettig) describes as desperate and juvenile attempts to hold on to their youth. When Ed suggests mushing along the trail of Admiral Byrd as a way to top running from bulls in Spain, Mitch is ready to quit the adventure trips and settle into senior life at the ripe old age of 39. After a demotion at his job and a surprise at his birthday party where Phil and his icy wife Arlene (Karla Tamburelli) have a blow out after she learns of his infidelities, Mitch's depression gets the better of his wife who sends him on one more adventure to find his smile.

And so it is that the trio finds themselves on a cattle drive in the American west with five other lost souls and Curly (Jack Palance) as the cattle boss. Palance is wonderful as the gruff old cowboy who intimidates everyone around him (Mitch:"Kill anyone today, Curly?" Curly: "Day ain't over yet."). Yet he knows the secret to life and relates the cryptic answer to Mitch during the ride. As they drive the cattle and overcome obstacles like stampedes, drunken escapades by the trail hands and their own personal struggles, Mitch comes to realize what Curly's answer means and that it is the only answer he needs to bring the pieces of his life back together.

Want City Slickers (1991) Discount?

Many movies end up being less than they try to be this one ended up being more. It's described as "the rowdiest western jokefest since Blazing Saddles" which is a terrible injustice. "Saddles" is maybe pretty funny but ultimately it is a meaningless simple comedy. "City Slickers" starts out pretending to be a mindless comedy (the opening credits are played in cartoon format) but ends up being surprisingly serious and even moving in parts. Billy Crystal plays a man experiencing your standard midlife crisis losing faith in his job, his future, and ultimately in himself. When a vacation at a "Dude Ranch" goes wrong, it causes him to re-think the priorities in his life. This is also the rare movie that explores male friendship realistically in the relationship between the characters played by Crystal, Bruno Kirby, and Daniel Stern. No sloppy "tearful-hugging" crap just three guys who've been buddies since childhood. Plus the added bonus is, this really is one funny movie the birthday party, the incident with the coffee bean grinder, the time Crystal's character tries to help Stern's character with his "inadequacy" (although now rather dated), etc, etc. This movie was seriously underrated probably because of the way it was marketed (Blazing Saddles? This is NOT a Blazing Saddlesstyle movie). Overall a very fine movie.

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