City Slickers (1991)

Comic genius Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally) stars in this hilarious film about cowboys careers and mid-life crises. Co-starring Daniel Stern Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance in an Academy Award®-winning* role City Slickers is "the rowdiest western jokefest since Blazing Saddles" (Rolling Stone). It'll rope you in... and keep you laughing from first frame to last! New Yorker Mitch Robbins (Crystal) is 39 and miserable. He's tired of his job and bored with his life. And his two best friends Ed (Kirby) and Phil (Stern) aren't doing much better. So when they all decide to chase their troubles away with a fantasy vacation Mitch and his pals trade their briefcases for saddle bags and set out to find freedom and adventure herding cattle under the wide New Mexico sky. But what they discover instead is scorching sun sore backsides... and more insight into themselves and each other than they ever thought possible!System Requirements:Running Time: 112 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/COMING OF AGE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 883904107828 Manufacturer No: M110782 Product Description

Still funny after all these years

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. July 12, 2008

More than it tried to be

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 hysterically 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 Saddles- style movie). Overall a very fine movie. June 4, 2008

Details of new Collector's Edition due out on June 3rd, 2008

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. May 6, 2008

It's about time this underappreciated classic gets some attention!

I know how pre-release reviews are kind of pointless, but I just have to express my joy to see "City Slickers" finally get a proper DVD release. As to the extent of how substantial the new special features will be, only time will tell, but anything's better than the current DVD. I grew up with this film and it's one of my all-time favorites, but even from a non-biased point of view, I sincerely think it's one of the most underrated films of the 90s. Few films have ever so flawlessly balanced hilarity with heartfelt emotion.

Can't wait for June 3rd! March 4, 2008

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