City Slickers The Rewatchables
City Slickers poster
City Slickers

What’s Aged the Worst?

The two drunk cattle hands; the last third; the opening animated credits; the VCR recording conversation; Ron Underwood's filmography; veal; the ranch owner's sale speech; City Slickers II

In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:45Read transcript
  • The two drunk cattle hands are bizarre: after Curly dies they play with guns and taunt Mitch about killing Norman, with no hint earlier that they were evil.
  • Many 80s and 90s movies invent two characters to supply 20 minutes of tension; these two only introduce Curly by threatening Helen Slater's character, and a Taylor Sheridan version would have had a shootout.
  • The last 35 minutes fall off, with crossing a river as the major tension.
  • The expensive animated opening credits of a cowboy doing a rope trick are a long time suck, unlike thematically coherent Pink Panther openings.
  • A conversation about recording on a different VCR channel could not have aged worse and would take an hour to explain to Craig.
  • Ron Underwood's IMDb is read: Tremors, City Slickers, Heart and Souls, Speechless, Mighty Joe Young, The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Stealing Sinatra, prompting a 'JV Rob Reiner' comparison.
  • The movie makes you feel bad about eating veal, though veal parm is still enjoyed.
  • The ranch owner's speech about selling the cattle is called a bit of a picking nit and jokingly credited as the birth of veganism.
  • Without being sure it counts as aged the worst, the era's tone, an extra bad dad joke in every scene and Mark Shaman's score with gospel music during the stampede, is called corny and soft and said to belong to an era.
  • City Slickers 2 is called a money grab; Kirby not returning is likened to Duvall not doing Godfather 3, Palance returns as a twin, and Lovitz replaces Kirby with Godfather 2 speeches.
  • City Slickers 2 was not fired up deliberately: it came on during a channel flip while Lovitz was doing Godfather 2, and watching started from there. — Bill Simmons
  • Kirby's absence from the sequel was never explained; a reported excuse is a horse allergy that required shots on set, and internet rumors of a falling-out and blackballing by Crystal are called absurd, though Kirby's IMDb fell apart.
  • Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere is quoted theorizing that actors labeled bad news get avoided, and the host stresses he is not saying Crystal did this.
  • A 2001 USA Today junket exchange for America's Sweethearts is recounted: asked about Kirby, the answer was not having seen or spoken to him in a long time but thinking they were still friends, followed by calling the reporter the worst junket story.
  • Kirby's later career dropped off apart from roles like Donnie Brasco and Sleepers, and he died young.