Stan & Ollie

Felt it was pretty lightweight myself... sometimes pleasantly so, other times forgettably so.

The two lads do a grand old job, don’t get me wrong, and it all ticks along. But I think the trailer basically gives you the film - and that’s not necessarily down to the trailer being ‘spoilery’ or anything. There’s more nuance and weight in the full thing for sure, but you could basically write the general outline of the thing yourself. That direction-wise it’s not far beyond a high-budget tv drama doesn’t help.

But at the same time if you stumbled across it on a Sunday afternoon on BBC2 you’d have a grand old time: just the right amount of cheer mixed with some warm-hearted nostalgia. Laurel & Hardy were something of a gateway drug for me into classic comedy (there was one summer holiday when I was in my early teens when BBC showed one short every morning) so it’s nice to see a tribute to them. But as a film in its own right there’s just not a whole lot to it beyond strong performances. I’m usually the biggest proponent you’ll find of seeing any given film on the big screen, but this is the rare beast where I got the sense its natural home is on the small one.