Ron Underwood directs Billy Crystal, Jack Palance and Bruno Kirby in this comedy western where three middle-aged friends go on an adventure holiday so they can get to be cowboys for a fortnight.

Witty, colourful and surprisingly rousing. There are some big and convincing stunt sequences involving the stars and cattle played for thrills as much as laughs. This was a favourite of mine as a kid that lived up to fond memories on rewatch. Crystal (“HELLOOOOO!”) fills even the already funny scenes with relentless bonus patter. The man is a joke machine. His chemistry with Kirby and Daniel Stern is rich. The only negative is everyone gets a bittersweet, moment of self-realisation monologue in the second act… and they do start to feel formulaic once you notice the trend. This mid-level Hollywood release was the fifth most successful film at the 1991 box office and it is still so crowd pleasing and smart thirty years later, you can easily see why!

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