CITY SLICKERS is every bit as funny and enjoyable today as it was as a box office monster in 1991.
Billy Crystal is Mitch Robbins, cruising toward 40 and starting to think his best days are behind him.
Every year, he takes a boy's trip with his two best friends. Daniel Stern (Home Alone, Blue Thunder) is hilarious as timid Phil, verbally abused by his beastly bride Arlene (the very funny Karla Tamburrelli) and stuck working 20 hour days in her father's store.
Bruno Kirby (When Harry Met Sally) is lothario Ed, dating ever younger women and always pushing for a crazier adventure.
They boys meet their match when they book a cattle drive for this year's trip.
Barry and Ira Shalowitz are famous ice cream makers, perfectly played by Josh Mostel and David Paymer. Watching Crystal and Mostel face off over the perfect ice cream for every meal is worth the price of admission.
Helen Slater (Supergirl) is newly single Bonnie, whose got everyone's attention.
But best of all, Jack Palance turns in his Oscar Winning role as Curly, the most terrifying trail boss in the West.
Palance is perfect. Hilarious, scary and loaded with great lines ("I crap bigger than you") and secrets about the meaning of life.
Hilarious scenes abound, but I was surprised at how many strong dramatic scenes there were as well. This was Crystal at the peak of his box office power and it's one of his best films.
My favorite scenes include Stern pretending to sleep in order to hide from his wife, prompting Crystal's classic line "That's quite a life you've carved out for yourself, Phil."
and Crystal's speech at his son's career day which soon collapses into "By your eighties, you've had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand but who you call mama."
(Watch for a very young Jake Gyllenhaal as Crystal's son.)
The music by Mark Shaiman (South Park, Hairspray) is a classic full orchestra, rousing Western score. It's the perfect accompaniment to the terrific screenplay by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandell, who cranked comedy classics out in the 80's and 90's like "Splash" and "Parenthood".
If you haven't seen CITY SLICKERS in awhile, get back on the trail and watch it again. It's just as funny as you remember, but maybe a whole lot more touching too.
I'm saddling up an appreciative A+.
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