Product Details

• Actors: Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, Patricia Wettig
• Directors: Ron Underwood
• Writers: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
• Producers: Billy Crystal
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Columbia Pictures
• VHS Release Date: December 30, 1997
• Run Time: 114 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792837258
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,710 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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• This is item 1 in The City Slickers Series.

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

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Becky (Ellalong, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

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.

6 of 7 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (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!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great "Guys" Flick!, August 8, 1999

By A Customer

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.