City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994)

Very disappointing...

Just perfect...

Fantastic!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

I didn't find myself cracking up as much with this movie as I did with the original "City Slickers", but it had it's moments, and finding a way to bring Jack Palance back was a definite must for a sequel. One thing I did like was the way they worked in the concept of the treasure hunt into the story line after Mitch (Billy Crystal), Phil (Daniel Stern) and Greg (Jon Lovitz) all thought they really were on to a million dollar discovery. Along the way, the picture makes clever use of geography and terrain to support the Western Pacific Railroad robbery saga, and references to "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" were entertaining and well placed.You probably had to see the first movie in order to appreciate some of the repeat gags offered by Mitch and Phil on the trail like programming a VCR, and an early scene with Mitch running along side of Norman wouldn't have made any sense without having done so. Crystal manages once again to plug his admiration for Mickey Mantle while wearing a Mets cap, and when he simulated that drag under the runaway wagon it brought to mind all those B Westerns for which Yakima Canutt invented the gimmick.There's at least one takeaway I got from the picture that makes it memorable; I'll bet this is the only movie ever made in which a character uses the word 'pi--pot'. It occurs when Duke (Palance) gets irritated over the boys whining about how cold it is as they try to figure out a way to warm up. Right around the same time Duke doubled me over when he described how his mother died, stabbed in a bar fight at ninety five. The imagery there is simply impossible. Go ahead, try it.

Okay, I may not be the best sequel to a comedy, but at least there were funnier jokes in this one than the original. Don't get me wrong, I really like the first movie and I own it, but watching it again and noticing the jokes in it, pretty much it was all bitching and complaining about their sex lives and their mid life criss-es. And Bruno Kirby is a funny guy, but his character Ed wouldn't stop convincing Mitch to do all these crazy things and asking him ridiculous questions like the woman in the rocket ship and the Kellogs super pack. Pretty much the funniest one (and most unfortunate one) is probably Phil (Daniel Stern). ARLENE: YOU'RE CRAZY! PHIL: THAT'S RIGHT! NOT HAVING SEX FOR 12 YEARS WILL DO THAT TO A PERSON! hilarious, brilliantly hilarious.However, in this movie, the jokes were very well thought, well expressed and sarcastic and frank at the same time. That to me is impressing. GLEN: Hey guys! How do you think those two laughing idiots we rented all this stuff from are going to feel when we bring home all that gold? MITCH: Yeah, the looks on those tobacco chewin', gun rack having, chicken screwin', sister marryin', abandoned bathroom in the front yard leaving, vitamin deficientcied ugly faces! That has to be the best description of two dumbass hicks. There are tons of other jokes in this movie that wish I could recite. I do admit that I was disappointed in a lot of the characters or some recognizable cast were in only in the movie for a very short period of time but thats about it. Anway thats pretty much all I can say about that.

Why isn't there a City Slickers III? The first two movies were very good and the end of City Slickers II would make you think it leaves the door open for another sequel.I think anyone who rips this movie is one of those people who is looking to rip movies because, in my opinion, this movie is pretty good! I'd really like to see Billy Crystal come back to this role with Daniel Stern and, hopefully Jack Palance.Maybe it could be a tribute to many of the Western stars by having people like Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Kirk Douglas in it.What do you think?

I don't have a problem with sequels because many times I find them more appealing than the original. This is another example, although not a wide margin. The first was good; this is a little better.Despite being almost two hours which is long for a comedy, this moves very fast. That's the selling point of the movie: it's entertaining. Not only do you get a comedy with a lot of laughs, you get brilliant Western scenery enhanced by the widescreen DVD.The negatives, at least for me, was the all-too-secular outlook on life and an obsession with sex espoused by lead actor Billy Crystal and his clueless buddies Daniel Stern and Jon Lovitz and the unnecessary profanity by Jack Palance.All the characters, however, are definitely fun to watch and there is a good message in the end about sacrificing for friends and relatives. The story also features a very neat twist at the end. This is a film you can laugh at with multiple viewings.