CITY SLICKERS (1991) C 112m dir: Ron Underwood

w/Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, Patricia Wettig, Helen Slater, Jack Palance, Noble Willingham, Tracey Walter, Josh Mostel, David Paymer

From The Movie Guide: "CITY SLICKERS is a skewed, serio-comic variation on Howard Hawks' classic RED RIVER in which the cattle drive becomes a two-week vacation, Walter Brennan, Montgomery Clift and John Wayne become Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby and Billy Crystal, and the manifest destiny subtext becomes an inner search for the 'child within' and a man's discovery of his smile.

"Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal), the man without a smile, is in the throes of a mid-life crisis, questioning his success and his family's happiness. Joining Mitch are his two best friends, Ed Furillo (Bruno Kirby), a loudmouth womanizer fretful about settling down and raising a family, and Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern), whose life is coming apart after his shrewish wife finds out about an affair he had with a 20-year-old woman. At Mitch's 39th-birthday party, his pals give him their gift --- a two-week vacation in the West on a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado. Upon arriving, the three friends demonstrate their lack of cowboy skills but they gradually learn to rope and ride as they discuss their childhood hopes and adult disappointments.

"CITY SLICKERS successfully skirts the chance for cheapshot gag comedy and becomes a friendly, heartfelt celebration of friendship and community, greatly aided by a funny and moving script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell (PARENTHOOD, VIBES, SPLASH). Ron Underwood's direction complements the script and, while evoking memories of old Western films and TV shows, never overshadows the acting of a uniformly capable cast. Crystal manages to avoid the schtick that marred his previous film work; Jack Palance as Curly plays his role in an almost frightening evocation as a mythic Western hero. His whisper-growls and godlike demeanor make Palance seem a Disney World automaton. But since Palance's job is to carry with him the weight of 90 years of Western film myth, his performance is finely tuned, without any hint of parody that could throw the film out of whack."

CITY SLICKERS won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Palance).