City Slickers (1991)

• Year: 1991
• Released: 07 Jun 1991
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Won 1 Oscar. 8 wins & 7 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101587/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/city_slickers
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/city-slickers
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Comedy, Western
• Runtime: 113 min
• Writer: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
• Director: Ron Underwood
• Cast: Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Daniel Stern
• Keywords: vacation, fish out of water, cattle drive, stetson, mid-life crisis,

	6.8/10
	70/100
	91% – Critics
	64% – Audience

City Slickers Storyline

Pushing 40, miserable New York City executive Mitch Robbins finds himself struggling to find his long-lost smile and meaning in life. But Mitch’s equally-bored best friends, Ed and Phil, aren’t doing any better. However, this year, to escape the dreaded midlife crisis, the lifelong companions have decided to follow their instinct and try their luck at getting a sense of accomplishment. Now, the utterly unprepared thrill-seekers are playing cowhands on a real-life, two-week cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado to find freedom. Will the clueless city slickers ever become real cowboys?

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City Slickers Movie Reviews

three men in mid-life crisis go on a cattle drive

A wonderful, wonderful film, and if you’re my age, you’ll cry.

From 1991, “City Slickers” stars Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, Jack Palance, Patricia Wettig, and Helen Slater. Three men (city folk) whose lives range from unhappy to disastrous go on a two week holiday in the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There, on the open range, away from their responsibilities, they can perhaps sort out what they want and who they are.

Crystal is Mitch, a happily married man with children who hates his job and is depressed most of the time. When he gets a 30th birthday gift from his pals to do the cattle drive, his wife (Wettig) insists that he go rather than visit her family. If he hesitates, it’s because his friend Ed’s last idea, of running with the bulls in Pamplona, was a horror.

Phil (Stern) is humiliated at Mitch’s 30th birthday party when a woman who works for him comes in and announces she’s missed her period, thus causing his wife to dump him on the spot – though they’ve been miserable for years.

Ed has a lingerie model girlfriend who wants a family, but he’s having trouble making a commitment.

So all three go.

There, they meet some real cowboys, and the oldest one, Curly (Palance), is one tough cookie. But Mitch is able to spend some time with him, and Curly tells him that only one thing matters. Just one. But you have to figure out what that one thing is. When Mitch has a crisis, he finally finds out what it is for him.

I really loved this film. It was absolutely hilarious, with some of Billy Crystal’s fabulous delivery, and yet very touching at the same time. A perfect combination, something that’s not always easy to achieve. Very well acted and directed, the film moves along beautifully.

Highly recommended. Full of wit, with some excitement, and poignant moments.

Sometimes, we should all ‘have a cow’ ..

As a guy who just turned 30, got himself married and gave up many crazy projects in order to convince the woman of his life that he’s ready to raise a family, I’m probably sure I would end up like Mitch Robbins when I’ll turn 39, or like his best friend Phil, or who knows, maybe like Ed. Yes sir, maturity, responsibility, practicality turned “City Slickers”, a film I laughed at a lot when I was a kid, into a real eye-opening experience, the laughs are still intact, but the whole existential thing cut to my heart, as it never did, making some parts depressingly predictive.

This is to the credit of “City Slickers”, a great comedy with an original premise; three white- collar New Yorkers decide to spend a two-week vacation, herding cattle from New Mexico to Colorado, like real cowboys. Billy Crystal is Mitch, Daniel Stern is Phil and the late Bruno Kirby is Ed, the film screams ’90’s comedy’ through these three faces, but their friendship is not just believable, I wouldn’t believe it if these guys were not friends in real life. They share their childhood, baseball and fathers’ memories (sometimes, the three at once) with the kind of passion that can only be expressed between pals. “City Slickers” features real characters, with real problems, real dilemma, and real fears, in a sort of psychological build-up that makes the whole experience even more insightful.

Naturally, the film offers the obligatory gallery of supporting characters with their share of goofiness and sympathy, there is a father and his son, both “black and dentist” as states the son, making an issue of it before anyone would do. There are David Paymer and Josh Mostel as Ira and Barry Shalowitz, owners of one of the biggest national ice companies, a la Ben & Jerry’s, and a pretext to a hilarious line when they’re asked why it’s not their faces that are featured in the boxes “would you eat it if it was us?”. There’s naturally the pretty blonde who might mislead the first-time viewers, but wisely enough, the script avoids any attempt of a romance (the kind that undermined even such classics as “Red River”, to which “City Slickers” is a clear homage). These guys have enough problems, Mitch is in a middle-age crisis, contemplating the emptiness of his life, Phil lost his job and wife, Ed lives with a 24-year old girl who wants a baby, whatever the solution is, it’s not a woman… not yet anyway.

“City Slickers” is a buddy movie and I guess that’s what men would enjoy the most: watching guys they can all relate to, having a good time once in their lives, having a break. By taking them to a totally exotic setting, the film illustrates the miraculous effect communion with nature has on men. A poet said once, “it’s only when you get at the top of a mountain that you start climbing”, in “City Slickers”, it’s when they’ll get at the end of the road that the road of their lives will start. This is what it’s all about, a new start, with new decisions, new choices. Each one has to figure what the one thing he cares the most is and stick with it. Like the best comedies, “City Slickers” speaks a powerful and inspirational message about our capacity to change our lives without changing much, just the mindset. And one character embodies this spirit; it’s Curly, the veteran cow boy, the toughest man Mitch ever saw.

Curly is the character the movie needed the most. Without him, it would have been a bunch of city slickers playing cowboys, but Jack Palance, with his rock-graved face and inimitable grin, is the remaining link to this missed era. The film doesn’t just feature a bunch of tender-feet herding a cattle, it’s also the celebration of the cowboy spirit, the Old West as a part of history, of pop-culture and cinematic heritage. It’s one thing to have the guys yelling “Yee- haaa” like in “Red River”, or the trio humming the “Bonanza” theme. Jack Palance’s face is the continuation of Hollywood’s Golden Age. And when he said “we’re a dying breed”, I wondered if he was speaking only about cowboys or also about his generation of actors. Palance elevates the film beyond the simple comedy label, and that his brief performance earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor proves how unforgettable he was. That’s what a supporting is about, helping the main character to change, to see life differently, without doing much.

Directed by Ron Underwood, “City Slickers” belongs to the best breed of comedy. It is full of priceless exchanges, like a Leone-like duel about ice cream-flavor, or an unforgettable stamped caused by a coffee thermos, many tender subplots like the birth of a little calf that made me for one second considering turning into vegetarian, and the growing complicity between Curly and Mitch. It’s funny and warm, and although it does sometimes overdo the male-bonding thing, it never gets over the top. I felt for Mitch when he was wondering what his job was about, for Phil when he finally vented his anger repressed for many years on the bullies, and Ed who seems to incarnate this guilty pleasure, we, committed men, fantasize on? And the icing on the cake is the ‘Magnificent Seven’-like score of the film which never seems out-of-place.

“City Slickers” is one of these few comedies that make you both laugh and think like “Groundhog Day” or “Back to the Future”, but it doesn’t take a fantasy device for that, just an Old West trip. And it’s an invitation for each of us to find out this ‘one thing’ that counts the most, and which ‘cowboy trip’ would help us to figure out.

Adeptly played and funny comedy, that gently pokes fun at both midlife crises and the Wild West

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy City Slickers as much as I did. I will say even before seeing the film I said to myself that it should be a good film at least. I mean it has a great cast, Billy Crystal, Bruno Kirby, Daniel Stern and Jack Palance, and it has a good director, Ron Underwood who directed the cult sci-fi classic Tremors. Plus I am all for comedy, as long it is sophisticated, funny and clever. I have seen films where it does promise to be all these things but fail.

Just to assure you, City Slickers doesn’t fall into that trap. I was expecting it to be good, I got great. I do agree that the sentimentality occasionally gets in the way, but essentially City Slickers is a funny and gentle comedy. It does poke fun at both midlife crises and the Wild West, but in a subtle way. The script is wonderfully engaging and does raise a number of laughs with some wickedly funny exchanges. One of my many favourites is the one between Mitch and Curly: “Morning Curly. Kill anyone today?” “Day’s not over yet”. I also loved the part when the men are talking about Curly and he is standing right behind them.

Asides from the script, the film is beautifully filmed, with lovely scenery and cinematography, with some wonderful set pieces. And the music was lovely as well. Not only that, the film does have a very interesting story as well, it has a consistent structure with a nice ending to boot. Ron Underwood’s direction is equally as adept as the performances. Billy Crystal, an actor who admittedly you love or hate is perfect as Mitch, his speech to the children in the kindergarten is another highlight. Bruno Kirby wonderfully balances humour and poignancy, and Daniel Stern plays with real goofiness and charm that was really appealing. Plus I loved Jack Palance in this film, he was a great actor, and he is clearly having a ball with this film.

Overall, a wonderful comedy, helped by a great performances and adept direction and acting. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox