Stan & Ollie

This is the best new movie I have watched in years. John C. Reilly could easily be nominated for acting honors. The cinematography is beautiful, the sets are believable and the story seems to be an honest account of an interesting part of Stan and Ollie's lives. The best part of this movie is the opening four minute plus tracking scene. It is not quite as great as LaLaLand's tracking shot but still one of the all time best. Laurel and Hardy fans will love this movie. Hopefully it will make youngsters curious enough to watch some of their old movies. This movies uses some of my favorite scenes from Way Out West. Excellent movie.

I was really bowled over by this film Stan & Ollie. Steve Coogan as Laurel and John C. Reilly as Hardy were so dead on in their performances. I really thought I was looking at the real Stan & Ollie off screen in private moments.

With a couple of flashbacks to the late 30s the film was a story of both Laurel and Hardy in their last days. Said last days consisted of a tour in the British Isles and a promise of yet another feature film shot in the United Kingdom and it would have been a Robin Hood kind of satire with Ollie as one obvious choice as Friar Tuck.

Things don't go as planned and Hardy's health is giving out. Ironically it was Stan who had the health problems before. They had made a film Bullfighters in 1945 and then Laurel had issues that kept him off the screen for 7 years. Ollie in that time did appearances with John Wayne in The Fighting Kentuckian in a sidekick role and as one of many comic actors in a memorable bit in Frank Capra's Riding High. The two did Utopia in 1952 and it was a bomb.

The film emphasizes and it's important to remember than neither of them owned any of their films. They made millions for producer Hal Roach yet it was only a straight salary they were paid. Laurel had been married multiple times and Hardy had a gambling problem.

So the guys are in Great Britain on tour because they need the money and hope to do one more film where they would share in the profits and have a more than comfortable old age. Sadly it doesn't work out that way. This film will tell you why.

What I liked best about Stan & Ollie is the chemistry between Coogan and Reilly in their characters. Newer comedy teams like Abbott&Costello and Martin&Lewis were in their prime just as Stan & Ollie were going into decline, but they had their well publicized spats and eventual breakups. These two guys never had those kind of incidents.

It was also nice to see Nina Arianda and Shirley Henderson as the last wives of the boys and the relationship of the four. Laurel was married 5 times and Hardy thrice. Wives and former wives were also an expensive proposition.

I think all Laurel and Hardy fans should see Stan & Ollie. And if you see this film make sure you acquaint yourself with their comic genius.

I am an officer of the international Laurel & Hardy society Sons of the Desert, and I just attended a pre-release screening of the upcoming "Stan and Ollie."

Before the picture started I was thinking about older celebrity biographies that didn't work out ("The Buster Keaton Story," "The Eddie Cantor Story") and others that succeeded despite taking massive liberties with historical facts ("The Jolson Story," "The Buddy Holly Story"). Well, I thought, I'll keep an open mind and look at "Stan and Ollie" as a fictional, larger-than-life show.

Two words of advice, Laurel & Hardy fans: SEE IT.

The producers have taken extreme pains to set the scenes just so, with the decor, the props, the wardrobe, and the general atmosphere ringing true. The re-enactments of actual events are substantially accurate, but the screenwriter has juggled the chronology around for dramatic effect, so things don't happen in their actual order. The early scenes, for example, show the older Laurel & Hardy playing to small audiences in tiny theaters, and the final scenes show full houses in massive theaters -- in fact, the reverse was true, with the venues getting humbler as the years passed. At least one character is a composite of different people: Stan's self-effacing wife Ida is portrayed like one of his former wives, the strident Countess Illeana. The biggest dramatic liberty, seen in the "Stan and Ollie" trailers, has Stan and Babe arguing and battling. These scenes are well played and staged, but have no basis in fact. These scenes are more like the Martin & Lewis story, where the easygoing partner withstands the driven partner's moodiness and finally sounds off. The 97-minute feature should not be judged by these few inaccurate minutes.

We've all seen celebrity impersonations that are good, bad, or indifferent. I'm happy to report that Steve Coogan is outstanding as Stan Laurel, and John C. Reilly is astonishing as Oliver Hardy. The voices, the body language, the small gestures, the exaggerated "stage" personalities -- both actors are right on the money. This is no shallow, variety-show imitation. It's a surprisingly deep, heartfelt, and sincere portrayal of Laurel & Hardy, on stage and off.

"Stan and Ollie" opens in late December, and if you like Laurel & Hardy at all, have no fear -- you'll enjoy it. Will you recognize certain events in the story? Probably. Will you grin at the re-creations of the team's sketches? Almost certainly. But will you laugh your head off? No. This is an intimate story with only a few principals, and you might find yourself choked up more than once. Critics have called the relationship between the "Stan" and "Ollie" screen characters as the greatest love story of the movies. This new movie demonstrates it.

I hope Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are both nominated for Academy Awards as "Best Actor" -- and I hope they both win.

Steve Coogan has catapulted himself into a different class in this film, John C Riley, well you kind of expect and he never disappoints, solid and dependable. With such distinguished and recognisable cast, you kind of expect to see the familiar characters of the actors themselves playing parts that you cannot suspend disbelief. Clint Eastwood for example, you see a Clint Eastwood film, you have no idea who he's playing, it's just Clint Eastwood. But here, Steve Coogan disappears from the screen and becomes Stan Laurel, you are aware there are some slight physical appearance which make you know it's not quite right, but you are not seeing Steve Coogan, that's for sure. The film is engaging, enlightening into the real people that existed behind the alter egos of Laurel and Hardy, and is a beautiful dip into their personal relationship without portraying any dirty dark revelations that a sensationalist may be tempted to put into a film. Instead it remains for the most, a journey you take with the boys, and their struggle to remain relevant in a fast changing world after some not so good decisions in hindsight, and decisions which were presented well enough for you to subscribe to the reasoning of each possibility and probably make the same mistakes yourself. What im trying to say is that some films will present such bad career decisions as painfully obvious to the viewer, but this film left you taking both sides with equal validity.

But most of all, the film presents their deep and loving friendship. I wept, I wiped the tears and weaped some more. The kind of tear when you are simply moved by such genuine love. The film seemed to be over too quickly, I could've stayed another hour and half. Well done all concerned.

Now this, this is award winning stuff.

Any film that can make me cry deserves at least 8 out of 10.