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City Slickers
After his smash hit When Harry Met Sally, Billy Crystal teamed with the writers of Splash and the director of White Men Can't Jump for 1991's City Slickers, a rowdy tale of friendship set against a western canvas that provides solid entertainment courtesy some clever writing and colorful characters.
Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby play three buddies on the cusp of middle age, who decide to participate in an actual cattle drive for two weeks, traveling from New Mexico to Colorado, along with father and son dentists, a pair of ice cream manufacturers, and a romantically challenged young woman. After learning the rigors of horseback riding and cattle roping, the group find themselves intimidated by the creepy trail boss named Curley (Jack Palance) who scares the hell out of the timid guests.
The screenplay is credited to Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel; however, as always with Crystal, I'm sure he had a hand in this carefully crafted story that deserves credit for establishing the fact that the three leads are three very different kind of people: Crystal's character is happily married but is feeling the beginning mid-life; Stern's character is trapped in a marriage to an emasculating shrew who's now divorcing him because he got a girl pregnant; Kirby's character is a commitment phobe who loves women half his age and even though he's married to an underwear model, still isn't ready to settle down. Somehow, the kind of people they are gets challenged during down moments on the cattle drive. The exposition is well done, though it might go on a tad too long.
Director Underwood, accustomed to directing sports-oriented comedies, proved to be the perfect choice to direct this comedy which involved a lot of complicated physical comedy and the mammoth task of mounting an actual cattle drive, something we weren't used to in the 1990's. Even with all the wild physical comedy, there are scenes of quiet and warmth that are quite moving...love when Crystal helps a cow deliver a calf and the scene where the three leads talk about the best and worst days of their lives.
Crystal lights up the screen, as always, but almost has his thunder stolen by Stern, in the performance of his career as the seriously whipped husband. Jack Palance's charismatic turn as Curley actually won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, though I think the award was more sentiment than based on the performance itself. Loved David Paymer and Josh Mostel as the ice cream makers and if you look real close, that little boy in the opening scenes playing Crystal's son, is Jake Gyllenhaal, in his film debut. Dean Semier's cinematography and Marc Shaiman's music are the finishing touches on this contemporary comedy with a classic cinema sensibility.
After his smash hit When Harry Met Sally, Billy Crystal teamed with the writers of Splash and the director of White Men Can't Jump for 1991's City Slickers, a rowdy tale of friendship set against a western canvas that provides solid entertainment courtesy some clever writing and colorful characters.
Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby play three buddies on the cusp of middle age, who decide to participate in an actual cattle drive for two weeks, traveling from New Mexico to Colorado, along with father and son dentists, a pair of ice cream manufacturers, and a romantically challenged young woman. After learning the rigors of horseback riding and cattle roping, the group find themselves intimidated by the creepy trail boss named Curley (Jack Palance) who scares the hell out of the timid guests.
The screenplay is credited to Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel; however, as always with Crystal, I'm sure he had a hand in this carefully crafted story that deserves credit for establishing the fact that the three leads are three very different kind of people: Crystal's character is happily married but is feeling the beginning mid-life; Stern's character is trapped in a marriage to an emasculating shrew who's now divorcing him because he got a girl pregnant; Kirby's character is a commitment phobe who loves women half his age and even though he's married to an underwear model, still isn't ready to settle down. Somehow, the kind of people they are gets challenged during down moments on the cattle drive. The exposition is well done, though it might go on a tad too long.
Director Underwood, accustomed to directing sports-oriented comedies, proved to be the perfect choice to direct this comedy which involved a lot of complicated physical comedy and the mammoth task of mounting an actual cattle drive, something we weren't used to in the 1990's. Even with all the wild physical comedy, there are scenes of quiet and warmth that are quite moving...love when Crystal helps a cow deliver a calf and the scene where the three leads talk about the best and worst days of their lives.
Crystal lights up the screen, as always, but almost has his thunder stolen by Stern, in the performance of his career as the seriously whipped husband. Jack Palance's charismatic turn as Curley actually won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, though I think the award was more sentiment than based on the performance itself. Loved David Paymer and Josh Mostel as the ice cream makers and if you look real close, that little boy in the opening scenes playing Crystal's son, is Jake Gyllenhaal, in his film debut. Dean Semier's cinematography and Marc Shaiman's music are the finishing touches on this contemporary comedy with a classic cinema sensibility.