For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal), approaching middle age, is a rather unhappy Manhattan radio station advertising salesman who decides to get away from it all by joining his two best friends, Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) and Ed Furillo (Bruno Kirby), on an adventurous trip. Mitch's wife says to him: "Go and find your smile." Phil is a miserably married grocer who has committed adultery, while Ed, a sporting goods salesman, has recently married a much younger woman, explicitly a lingerie model. After Phil's wife told him that she hated him he replied, "I hate you more . . . if hate were people, I'd be in China." Ed has always suggested daring getaway vacations for the three friends, like running with the bulls at Pamplona, Spain (Ouch!). The latest adventure, Mitch's birthday present, involves joining a New Mexico working ranch (not a dude ranch), specifically a 200-mile two-week modern cattle drive that will end in Colorado. After the movie is a quarter over, the three friends finally arrive in New Mexico. There they meet five other slickers on the team, led by grizzled trail boss Curly (Jack Palance), who carries a large Bowie knife and seems to be a survivor of a century earlier. Next in command are two professional cowboys / ranch hands, T.R. (Dean Hallo) and Jeff (Kyle Secor), who repeatedly exhibit appalling behavior. But Curly teaches the dudes about life on the western range, especially during those idealistic nights around the campfire when the three guys sit back and reflect at their lives.There are various adventures, as when Mitch spooks the cattle into stampede with his modern, and loud, coffeemaker. Scenes include roping of stray cattle and Mitch helping to deliver a calf. Surprisingly, there is even a near gunfight. It concludes with a dangerous river crossing during a rainstorm. Along the way, Curly's smoking and eating bacon every day catches up to him, and he is found dead and is buried on the trail. The two professional cowboys take over for Curly, but they abandon the cattle drive. Mitch takes over, but everyone leaves except Ed and Phil. Will they make it to Colorado? Well, it all works out in the end as the men return to their eastern homes with a more positive attitude about life. The male-bonding works well here. The movie is ambitious and delivers with some great comedic lines without being baseless. Nothing is forced or contrived, and so the director gets it right. The actors are fine enough, but Palance as Curly steals his scenes with a relish! In the 1994 sequel, Palance plays his twin brother, Duke.

Mitch is a middle aged big-city radio ads salesman, and he and his friends Ed and Phil are having mid-life crisis.They decide the best birthday gift is to go on a two week holiday to the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado.There they meet a cowboy called Curly, who not only teaches them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the west.....City Slickers was one of those sleeper hits that came out of no where back in the days when a films pending release wasn't hyped up within an inch of it's life thanks to forums and the internet.All we had then was seeing a trailer at the actual cinema and seeing a poster somewhere on a bus stop.And it's clear to see why it was just so successful, everybody is just having fun, and it's just an easygoing film with rarely an element of danger for our three characters.It's just a film about people thinking that maybe life may be greener on the other side, and them just going on a big holiday to learn some life lessons and get over themselves.Crystal as usual is wonderful, but he's a marmite actor, you'll either love his cocky humour, or you'll just want to smack him in the face.Heaven knows why Palance walked home with an Oscar, he's good, but other than mumblecoring his way through his lines, he's just their as a friendly antagonist to Mitch.It's aged pretty badly, the yuppie element to the film is pretty cringeworthy now, and it's just too neatly wrapped up come the end.as if Daniel Stern would get with Supergirl......

So is this the quintessential mid-life crisis film or what? Not to mention the life long buddies team-up at the heart of the story. I watched this one again after many years and I couldn't stop cracking up. My summary line from Billy Crystal's Mitch Robbins was just one of the many quips that left me rolling, in fact I had to pause the picture when Crystal started his second eulogy - 'What can one say about Skyrocket and Buttercup...'.The casting of the principals here couldn't have been better. The era offered any number of possible players like Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Steve Martin, and on and on, but Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby gelled in a very believable way as a trio of friends who had grown up together and been there for each other through thick and thin.And then there's Jack Palance. Introduced as the mysterious and potentially deranged trail boss Curly. Palance and Crystal play off each other in wonderful fashion leading to a strange new friendship just before Curly's unscheduled ride off into the sunset. If you've ever seen the movie, you'll forever be inspired by Curly's embrace of the 'one thing'. If you haven't seen the film yet, you owe it to yourself.

'City Slickers' is A Wholesome Entertainer, that is indeed an American classic from 1991. A lovely comedy, that is also about friendship & maturity. The first-rate performances only add to the film's greatness.'City Slickers' Synopsis: On the verge of turning 40, an unhappy Manhattan yuppie is roped into joining his two friends on a cattle drive in the southwest.'City Slickers' is a complete joyride. Its a funny film, treated lightly & quietly. Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel's Screenplay focuses primarily on comedy, but also covers themes of friendship & maturity. Its wonderfully written! Ron Underwood's Direction is absolutely fantastic, churning out a worthy story with such perfection. Cinematography captures the wilderness, amazingly. Editing could've been sharper. Performance-Wise: Billy Crystal is a delight, a true genius. He's exemplary! The Late/Great Jack Palance, in an Oscar-Winning Performance, is restrained. Daniel Stern is fabulous. The Late/Great Bruno Kirby is effective. Patricia Wettig is very sincere. Helen Slater is decent. David Paymer & Josh Mostel are crazy.On the whole, 'City Slickers' is so much fun!