Product Details

• Actors: Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, Patricia Wettig
• Directors: Ron Underwood
• Writers: Babaloo Mandel, Lowell Ganz
• Producers: Billy Crystal, Irby Smith
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Columbia Pictures
• VHS Release Date: December 7, 1992
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302227380
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #277,033 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Three middle-age buddies (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby) facing personal crises decide to sign up for a two-week cattle run for a change of pace. The trail proves a tougher place than anyone thought, and the boss (Jack Palance) is a grizzled taskmaster who doesn't cotton to tenderfoot urbanites. Popular in theaters, the film is both funny and moving, with Crystal giving one of his most complete performances and Palance (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) a lot of colorful fun. Director Ron Underwood (Heart and Souls) subtly shifts the tone of the film from broad comedy to poignancy over its running time, and he makes the story's end a bittersweet victory that feels like life as most people know it. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

This feel-good comedy, directed by Ron Underwood from a script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, is a depressingly efficient piece of Hollywood product. The hero, Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal), is a thirty-nine-year-old New York family man who's going through a killer midlife crisis. His wife (Patricia Wettig) gets so fed up with his moping that she virtually orders him to take a vacation with his buddies Ed (Bruno Kirby) and Phil (Daniel Stern); Ed, a daredevil, macho type, has arranged for them to spend two weeks on a real cattle drive out West. Mitch's wife looks him in the eye, and says earnestly, "Go and find your smile"-and, ninety minutes later, there it is, a grin as big as all outdoors. His pals pick up the odd nugget of wisdom along the trail, too. The movie alternates predictable tenderfoot gags (sore behinds, stampedes, and the like) with long, ludicrous passages of group-therapy-on-the-range. Jack Palance, as Curly, the trail boss, manages some dry, macabre comic effects, and the animals are good-they're interesting to look at, and they don't make bad jokes. You can't help sympathizing with the cattle; by the time the movie is over, you know what it feels like to be part of the herd. Also with Helen Slater. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Likeable from start to finish!, September 1, 2000

By 

Becky - See all my reviews

This review is from: City Slickers [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Details of new Collector's Edition due out on June 3rd, 2008, May 6, 2008

By 

Sanpete (in Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City Slickers (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drop dead funny, August 3, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City Slickers (DVD)

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!