Customer Reviews

City Slickers (Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

This a a terrific "feel-good" movie. What I really like about the film is that it is a "guys" movie without violence - tough to find these days. I've heard a lot of people state that Jack Palance didn't deserve his Oscar for his role as Curly, but I believe that he is extremely convincing playing a cowboy among a group of city-slickers. It must have been tough to remain serious in the presence of Billy Crystal. This is one of Billy Crystal's better films.

I ordered this because it was supposed to be the Collector's Edition with Commentary, Featurettes & Deleted scenes. I received it and, while the cover states it is the Collector's Edition with the extras, it is not. So I returned it to Amazon, asking them to replace it, which they did remarkably quickly. Problem is, the replacement is exactly like the first one I received -- no commentary, no featurettes, no deleted scenes although the cover says they are there. So now I am trying to contact someone at MGM or Fox to sort this out. (Having no luck at that but I will continue to try.) I can't blame Amazon for having received mismarked packaging. I love the movie but I bought this as a replacement so I would have the extras and, alas, the extras are not there, so the rating is two stars because the product is not as advertised.

Very few comedies age well and this one isn't an exception; some of the jokes are still funny but many have aged poorly and have become lame as a result. The fortunate thing though is that this film is not just an outright comedy but it also has a timeless theme of dealing with mid-life crisis and understanding that "one thing" in life that matters.

For this reason, this film will still amuse and remain relevant for some years to come. Too bad this dvd version is so poor though as the picture quality was poor on too many frames and there was a glaringly large white spot on the frame where Daniel Stern's character gets discovered for his infidelity. The sound quality isn't the greatest either and so my suggestion is to wait for either a properly restored Blu-ray or standard version which addresses both these picture and sound quality deficiencies to be released and to give this particular dvd version a miss.

Another one of those infectious movies that you can view 100 times and never tire of! Bet you can't watch it...once! You'll come away with at least 5 "Crystalisms"...Hellooo...Fact is that there are profound messages that will stay with you wrapped up in all of this hilarity.

Curly's(Jack Palance)vivid picture of the sun shining through the dress of the woman he has loved all of his life, yet never approached...Bruno Kirby's "best day" and "worst day" monologue...and Billy Crystal's advice to a friend whose life has been recently shattered... "Your life is a do over..." referring to when they were kids and a ball would get hung up in a tree...go for it it's another chance...a do over.

That will be you plagiarizing the line..."Cow's today!" the next time your child crosses a social boundry! Stop me, somebody....stop me...I could go on and quote the entire script..."Woof...woof"!

A buddy film ...with a simple story line...dealing with midlife crisis and it's cure...that will put a smile on your face from the first frame to the last. Keep one on the shelf for emergency loss of joy therapy!

One of the biggest `are you kidding me' moments in Oscar history for me has got to be Jack Palance winning the supporting Oscar for his performance in `City Slickers'. Honestly, sure, it's not a terrible performance, but can you honestly call it a performance? He has like two scenes and what he does with them is truly nothing special.

In fact the entire film can be summed up in those very words; nothing special. It's funny in parts and the moral at the end is touching, but overall there is nothing here than cannot be found in a dozen (or more) other comedies, with greater effect even. The film is littered with standard one-liners that hit some time and miss others, and while the overall effect of the film is satisfying, it is nothing extraordinary.

The film follows Mitch Robbins, a man who loves his family but is disappointed with his overall lot in life and thus becomes bogged down by what he could have been and what he wound up becoming. His job is not exciting, but life in general is pretty boring and his outlook appears rather bleak. Add to that the fact that it is his birthday and you have a middle-aged man about to hit crisis mode. That is why his wife urges him to accompany his two best friends on a cattle drive adventure that is sure to bring Mitch to terms with his life. He begrudgingly goes along, but it winds up being the best thing for him.

Billy Crystal is generally pretty funny, but it wasn't until watching this movie that I realized how generic he really is. He's funny, sure, but nothing spectacular. His performance is genuine enough, but there is no real spark behind it; nothing that makes you beg for more. Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby, who play Mitch's best friends Phil and Ed, are actually much funnier than Crystal is here. Jack Palance has some funny lines here but overall his performance feels unfulfilled.

I know that a lot of people love this movie, and I can't say that it isn't worth a watch or two. I thought it was funny, I laughed, I enjoyed myself, but I also realize that this is not the greatest comedy known to man, and the added admiration is a bit over the top. It's a good generic comedy that ends on a nice moral, that's about it.

Like I said; nothing special.

I bought this movie after seeing the PBS tribute to Billy Crystal and remembering that this WAS a funny movie. This movie holds up really well after all these years. The comedy of a man's midlife crisis never gets old and all the players in this film were great. It was bittersweet to see the late great Bruno Kirby and a kick to see a very young Jake Gyllenhall before he was a star. Of course, this was Billy Crystal and Jack Palance's movie and they totally deliver the laughs, and are the heart of this movie.