Where to watch City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold
3 Stars
City Slickers II begins after the death of Curly. It is Mitch Robbins’ 40th birthday and the day is going quite well, until he returns home (after a working at the radio station) and finds his brother Glen, the black sheep of the family, on his sofa. Mitch is about to have a nice birthday-night with his wife when he discovers a treasure map of Curly’s by chance. Together with Phil (from the first film) and unfortunately also having to put up with Glen, he tries to find the hidden gold of Curly’s father in the desert of Arizona instead of attending a meeting in Las Vegas. The adventurous journey reveals many surprises until everything seems to be over when the map gets lost.
City Slickers was an enormous box-office success that led to Jack Palance winning an Oscar for his supporting performance as the veteran cowboy. I have always felt that the film is vastly overrated and overly sentimental, but I realize I’m in the minority. The first half of City Slickers II is better than anything in the original movie, and then things go a bit awry. The screenplay, Crystal served as co-author, is very funny before it begins to take its plot too seriously in the back half.
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold is the best sequel that could be made from a thin concept fully explored in the first movie. The jokes come fast, and the tone is upbeat throughout, but the zany action beats that dominate the final act become redundant. Still, Billy Crystal and his co-stars’ charisma is good enough to qualify City Slickers II, as a funnier movie than the first.
Directed by: Paul Weiland
Written by: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, Billy Crystal
Starring: Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Daniel Stern