You know when someone asks if you’ve seen their favourite movie and say you seen “parts of it” because you don’t want to seem like a total pop culture pariah? Yeah, we do too—and we hate ourselves for it! That’s why every other week, we’ve vowed to watch at least one movie we’ve put off, ignored, rejected or just plain-out forgotten about. Join us as recount the popping of our cinematic cherries, complete with awkward, over-analytical details!
CITY SLICKERS
DATE RELEASED: June 7, 1991
DATE WATCHED: February 25, 2012
WHY NOW? Likely in honour of Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars tomorrow night, it was on TV.
WHY NOT THEN? It's a pretty sad story actually. When I was younger, I'd make a neverending list of movies I wanted to watch. City Slickers was on that list. I'd scope out the local rental store and find as many as I could, but the variety was never great. My second resort was my family's old collection of VHSes from before my time. My third resort was TV. I'd check the weekly listings and see which movies were coming on that were on my list and either watch them or record them for later. I looked for years but I never found City Slickers. And then I forgot about it.
EXPECTATIONS:
- A hilarious Billy Crystal. (The other thing I'd seen him in was Monsters, Inc., needless to say, which was years after my list.)
- A non-western in a western setting: barren land and lots of horses. Well, what else?
- That's it. Really. I don't even remember why City Slickers was originally on my list. I feel like I knew nothing about it.
WHAT I ACTUALLY GOT...
- Some laughs, though not nearly as many as I'd hoped for. However, it has made me a Billy Crystal fan. Don't be angry, but when I heard he'd be hosting the Oscars again this year I was less than thrilled, though I'm now looking forward to it.
- That dusty ol' western setting.
- Jake Gyllenhaal as Mitch's (Crystal) son in his film debut at age 10. Surprise!
- An intro to Jack Palance (no, I haven't seen Shane either...), who took home both an Oscar and Academy Award for the role, beating out Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley and Tommy Lee Jones. Who'da thunk?
- A surprisingly refreshing story with a new take on the mid-life crisis. Life got you down? Go cattle herding.
- The cutest baby calf ever! And his name is Norman! And I want him to be my pet!
ONE NIGHT-IN STAND OR SECOND DATE POTENTIAL?
If it finds me on a lazy afternoon, sure. If not, my heart's not broken. It wasn't exactly as much as was expecting (with all my unfounded expectations). To say the least, I expected to be laughing a lot, and I wasn't, though there were some lines memorable enough to be repeating for years to come.
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