City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold

City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Paul Weiland
Produced by	Billy Crystal
Written by	Lowell Ganz Babaloo Mandel (characters and screenplay) Billy Crystal
Starring	Billy Crystal Daniel Stern Jon Lovitz Jack Palance Patricia Wettig
Music by	Marc Shaiman
Cinematography	Adrian Biddle
Editing by	William M. Anderson Armen Minasian
Studio	Castle Rock Entertainment
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 10, 1994 (1994-06-10)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$36 million
Box office	$43,622,150

City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold is a 1994 comedy film directed by Paul Weiland. It is the sequel to City Slickers (1991) and stars Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Jon Lovitz and Daniel Stern.

Although a financial success, the film did not reach the popularity of the first, receiving a generally negative response (a 19% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes). It was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel.

Plot

A year after the events of the first film, Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) is a much happier and livelier man, having moved out of the city and become station manager at the radio station he works at. One night, however, Mitch has a nightmare about his deceased friend, Curly (Jack Palance), coming back to life, and apparently sees him numerous times in the distance. Furthermore, Mitch finds an old map with a missing corner inside Curly's hat leading to a long-lost gold bullion. With help from his best friend, Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) and his somewhat-estranged younger brother, Glenn (Jon Lovitz), Mitch eventually discovers that Curly's father, Lincoln Washburn, stole the gold from the Western Pacific Railroad back in 1908, and hid it in the canyons of Spencer so that one day his son would find it and secure his future.

With an impending trip to Las Vegas for a convention, Mitch decides to use the opportunity to go to Spencer, which is near, to try and find the gold. With Phil and Glenn joining him, they buy supplies from two local cowboys, Bud and Matt, and set off on their journey. Mishaps ensue, such as Glenn accidentally setting the map on fire and Phil sitting on a cactus and believing that he was bitten by a rattlesnake, but they press on, following the map's trail. However, during lunch, they are confronted by Bud and Matt, who Phil had recklessly told about the gold and Curly's father and who now want the map for themselves. Though Mitch gives them a decoy map, Bud and Matt prepare to kill them when they are rescued by a man who fights them off. The man's face is identical to Curly's, but he introduces himself as Duke (Jack Palance), Curly's twin brother. Duke explains that long ago, when he and Curly were children, their father robbed the Western Pacific Railroad and promised them that one day they would all recover the gold themselves, but Lincoln got arrested. Before going to prison, however, he made a map for his sons to follow one day, and recently, their mother sent the map to Curly before she died. Curly contacted Duke to return, keeping the map in his hat until then, but he died on the cattle drive, and Curly's friend Cookie, the cook from the cattle drive, told Duke that Mitch had Curly's clothes, which was why Duke travelled to New York to find him. Though Duke prepares to leave them to search for the gold himself, Mitch persuades him to allow them to continue together, since Curly would not have approved otherwise, and Duke relents.

Later on, however, Mitch starts a stampede which results in the map, the food and most of the goods getting lost. Though initially prepared to return home, Glenn insists that he remembers the rest of the way, and despite the hardships of pressing on during the night, they eventually find the cave where the gold is hidden. But just as they find the gold itself, two robbers, apparently Bud and Matt again, confront them and a fight ensues in which Glenn is shot. Duke discovers the bullets to be paint-filled pellets just as they are confronted by Clay Stone (Noble Willingham), the coordinator of the cattle drive, along with several of their old friends. To their dismay, Clay Stone reveals that he runs a business taking tourists on a "real" wild west treasure hunt; the gold is actually painted lead, and the two robbers are actually his sons who pretend to be robbers in order to "scare" the treasure hunters. Though Mitch, Phil and Glenn return to Las Vegas, empty-handed but satisfied with their adventure, Duke remains in Spencer, convinced that there is real gold out there somewhere.

Duke later visits Mitch in his hotel room in Las Vegas, and confesses to him that he was planning to cheat him and his friends out of the real gold once they had found it, but he could not bring himself to do so. When Mitch expresses his skepticism, Duke reveals that while Curly had the map, he had the missing corner, containing the true location of the real gold, and presents Mitch with a genuine bar of gold as a gift.

Cast

• Billy Crystal as Mitch Robbins
• Daniel Stern as Phil Berquist
• Jon Lovitz as Glenn Robbins
• Jack Palance as Duke Washburn
• Patricia Wettig as Barbara Robbins
• Noble Willingham as Clay Stone
• Pruitt Taylor Vince as Bud
• Bill McKinney as Matt
• Josh Mostel as Barry Shalowitz
• David Paymer as Ira Shalowitz
• Lindsay Crystal, daughter of Billy, as Holly Robbins
• Beth Grant as Lois
• Jayne Meadows as the voice of Mitch's mother
• Jennifer Crystal Foley, daughter of Billy, as jogger
• Bob Balaban as Dr. Jeffrey Sanborn (uncredited)
• Frank Welker as Norman (voice)^{[citation needed]}

Reception

The movie gained a negative reception.

Box Office

The movie debuted at No.3

External links

• City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold at the Internet Movie Database
• City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold at Box Office Mojo