City Slickers (1991) - 7/10
Having been born just slightly before this movie’s release, as well as the general Billy Crystal craze, I wasn’t sure what I would be getting when the randomizer chose it. I’ve known of City Slickers for a while but always assumed it was more of a slapstick comedy in the vein of other late ’80s and early ’90s films. While I rightly guessed the fish-out-of-water comedy and some slapstick, City Slickers is a far more earnest and warm movie than I was expecting. But let's just jump into the rubric.
1. Acting
While the film is certainly an ensemble piece at times, it mostly revolves around the story of three friends played by Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby. Crystal gets the bulk of the focus and delivers a great performance as the sarcastic, charming, but somewhat lost Mitch. He pivots throughout the runtime from a disenchanted dad suffering a bit of a midlife crisis, into someone rediscovering his spark for life. There are times Mitch feels a bit self-centered, but Crystal keeps him likable — a big part of why the film succeeds. Stern and Kirby are great counterparts to Mitch and have their own personal struggles. Despite the more limited screen time, both actors do a good job of fleshing out their characters and finding great comedic moments when called upon.
While the film finds plenty of humor in the fish-out-of-water setup, its real heart comes from the friendship between the main characters. That’s perhaps where the acting shines most. Some of the most compelling (and still funny) parts of the film come from these three friends bantering and dissecting the state of their lives and friendship.
Beyond the main trio, the supporting cast adds a lot. However, Jack Palance truly steals the show as the gruff and intimidating Curly. Palance made a career of playing tough guys like Curly, and here he gets to both play into type and subvert it. Perhaps one of the film’s most sentimental sequences, after all, comes from Mitch and Curly’s discussion about finding the one thing that makes life worth living.
2. Cinematography
Like most westerns, City Slickers takes advantage of its wide, sprawling landscapes to evoke a sense of wonder and beauty. The rest of the film is fairly conventional in its shooting style and remains mostly straightforward.
3. Production and Costume Design
Apart from the opener in Spain, the rest of the film appears to have been shot on location with plenty of real-world elements. As such, I had no trouble feeling immersed in the cattle drive alongside the characters.
4. Writing
This is a bit of a mixed bag tonally, but I appreciate that the film has greater ambitions than its premise might suggest. There’s easily a version of this movie that would play everything for laughs and lean heavily into the fish-out-of-water narrative. Instead, City Slickers strives for more — contemplating the banality of life, the stress of major changes, and the difficulty of sustaining honest friendships as we age.
The film is also smartly written and well executed. The comedy varies from slapstick to sharp one-liners, and the emotional beats are nicely woven into the overall irreverent tone. My only critique is that some of its tonal shifts feel a bit jarring. For example, the scene with the two drunk ranch hands — which escalates to a gun being pointed at people’s heads — feels like a step too far. Similarly, the scene where Norman the calf is nearly swept away in a river, and Mitch almost dies saving him, feels slightly out of place. It’s not completely out of left field, but it comes close.
5. Sound Design
I don’t recall any specific elements of sound design that stood out, but everything seemed well executed overall.
6. Editing
The film maintains a nice rhythm across its 114-minute runtime. However, there are a few moments where the plot lingers a bit too long before moving to the next scene.
That said, there are several instances of smart editing that sell the action. The “Running of the Bulls” sequence, for instance, uses clever tricks to make the actors appear genuinely in danger. Later in the film, many of the cattle drive scenes likely required precise editing to maintain both pacing and safety.
7. Visual Effects
Not much stands out as pure visual effects, but there are likely a few moments of compositing to place actors into dangerous action scenes, as mentioned earlier.
8. Originality or Strength of Adaptation
I always thought of westerns as a very specific type of film, but I’ve come to realize that the genre has long been mixed with others — including comedy. City Slickers may not be the only western comedy out there, but it’s a worthy inclusion in a genre that was losing cultural traction at the time.
9. Stunt Coordination
There’s some solid stunt work throughout, though nothing that left a major impact.
10. Direction
Ron Underwood, based on his filmography, is a bit of a journeyman director. He may not bring a ton of unique flair, but his films are consistently well executed. For City Slickers, his main task seems to have been setting up visually compelling shots and letting his talented ensemble carry the emotional and comedic weight.
Legacy / Final Thoughts
City Slickers endures more than 30 years later as a breezy comfort movie that blends two genres effectively. Its lasting legacy, I think, comes from the fact that it challenges itself to be more than what’s expected. I’m not sure how much longer the film will remain relevant as audiences skew younger, but I hope it continues to be passed down as a great example of a ’90s comedy that aimed higher than much of today’s straight-to-streaming output.
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