Thirty-nine and married with children, Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal)
feels trapped. He worries about things like finding hairs in his ears and other unwanted places (”I`m beginning to look like the Fly”) and even bombs at Career Day at his son`s school. (Explaining that he peddles radio ad time, he dolefully concludes, ”Basically, I sell air.”)
But if life ”ain`t great,” he gets a chance for greatness when he and two buddies (who have previously vacationed with the running bulls at Pamplona) sign on for a two-week cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado-what Mitch characterizes as ”200 miles of a big moving stink.”
His New Jersey buddies in this funny slap-leather comedy are Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern), a supermarket manager with a nagging wife and checkout-counter mistress, and Ed Furillo (Bruno Kirby), the randy, macho owner of a sporting-goods store. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, other unlikely dudes turn up: Ira and Barry (Josh Mostel and David Paymer), namesakes of a famous ice cream; a black father-and-son dentist combination (Phil Lewis and Bill Henderson); and (as the romantic interest/sexual harassment target) a comely, stylish young woman (Helen Slater).
Incredibly, they quickly become accomplished horsepersons. Good thing, too, because the trail boss is the grizzled Curly (Jack Palance), the last of a dying breed who promptly puts down their citified ways but eventually softens up enough to reveal the secret of life.
Energetically directed by Ron Underwood (”Tremors”), ”City Slickers”
features a sharp script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (”Parenthood”), who even toss in a lively reworking of the ”move-`em-out” scene from ”Red River” and provide on-target lines like, ”Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place.”
Only in the last half-hour or so does the film veer off-trail toward the maudlin, when the three amigos are forced to act with grace under pressure, seriously discuss the restructuring of their lives and deal with a shameless Disney-like subplot involving an adorable calf named Norman.
Until then, every time the script turns sugary it is rescued by a quick-draw one-liner, usually by Crystal, the master of the deadpan delivery. Obviously, he is the center of the piece, whether delivering a hilarious monologue about the different ages of man or causing a stampede with his battery-operated coffeemaker or pretending he is Bob Vila in ”This Old Herd.” Stern and Kirby are just fine as other bonding buddies who amble along, chewing over everything from long-range goals to the proper way to program a VCR.
The best-sport award, though, goes to Palance, who turns in a delicious self-parody. First seen in menacing profile, he is all smirk and beady eyes and raspy voice and comes complete with a dangling cigarette and black gunslinger gloves right out of ”Shane.” When he is not flinging a knife at an out-of-line cowhand`s groin or singing ”Tumbling Tumbleweed” outrageously off-key, Palance seems content to sit assuredly on his horse, staring out at the magnificient landscape and looking all the while like the Rushmore of the Roundup.
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”CITY SLICKERS”
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Directed by Ron Underwood; written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel;
photographed by Dean Semler; production designed by Lawrence G. Paull; edited by O. Nicholas Brown; music by Marc Shaiman; produced by Irby Smith. A Columbia Pictures release; opens June 7 at the Biograph, Water Tower and outlying theaters. Running time: 1:48. MPAA rating: PG-13. Some strong language and sexual discussion.
THE CAST
Mitch Robbins……………………………………….Billy Crystal
Phil Berquist………………………………………..Daniel Stern
Ed Furillo……………………………………………Bruno Kirby
Curly……………………………………………….Jack Palance
Bonnie Rayburn……………………………………….Helen Slater
Barbara Robbins……………………………………Patricia Wettig