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.

You can probably tell from the review title that I absolutely loved the first film, the sentimentality occasionally got in the way, but it was funny, beautifully filmed and had adept direction and performances. I admit I was disappointed in this sequel, but there are much worse sequels out there, reading my past reviews you'll probably guess which ones I'm talking about. The film is beautiful to watch with a nice score, and the ending was great. And there were some funny moments, if not anything that I would quote like in the first. Plus the performances are good, Jack Palance makes a brief but worthwhile reprisal here, and Daniel Stern is as goofy and as charming as ever. Billy Crystal is much more reserved here though, and Jon Lovitz did irritate me. The flaws however come in mainly the basic plot structure, I know the first film had a simple story structure but this one had more so and the direction which isn't as skillful or as efficient this time around. Another problem was the pacing, while the film's length itself is fine there are times when the film does drag and badly. As I have said already there were times when I did laugh, but for me it wasn't quite enough. Overall, not an awful sequel, but it was disappointing. 5/10 Bethany Cox

It's one year later and Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) is approaching his 40th birthday. He is content as the manager of the NYC radio station and happy living in the country with his family. His friend Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) working under him is so depressed that he's considering a return to Arlene. His irresponsible brother Glen (Jon Lovitz) has come to town. While with his wife Barbara (Patricia Wettig),he discovers a treasure map in Curly's hat. He finds a story of a train robbery with missing gold worth about a million dollars. The three men go to Vegas and set off for a few days on their treasure hunt. Mitch has been haunted by Curly's presence which turns out to be Curly's twin Duke Washburn (Jack Palance).

This is so desperate to repeat the original that Palance returns as his own twin. I don't blame the movie for Bruno Kirby going missing. Who knows what the dispute was. Replacing him with Jon Lovitz feels forced which only adds to the manufactured nature of the story. I don't know if there was a time constraint but it seems to be a great opportunity for Mitch to take his wife on the journey together. If City Slicker is about a mid-life crisis, City Slicker 2 could be about some sort of family crisis. At least, that would have been moving the franchise forward. This movie has lost the chemistry and therefore lost the comedy.