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Sons of the Desert -
This look into Laurel and Hardys' home lives has its moments. When it comes to generating laughs - and cringe - you can't go wrong with trying to maintain a lie, and this movie's many variations on this trope work more than they don't. I especially like when the pals discover that one of their fellow Sons of the Desert happens to be Laurel's brother-in-law as well as their story about how they "ship-hiked" their way out of Honolulu. It also succeeds at utilizing the duo's talent for physical comedy, the highlights being Hardy's failed attempt at pretending to be sick and the scene involving smashed plates, which makes the one in The Godfather seem tame. Also, as a lover of movie trivia, it was nice to finally see Hardy deliver what could be this franchise's most iconic line, "here's another nice mess you've gotten me into."
Even though this is not a long feature film, it still has too much slack for me to fully embrace. To be fair, I've only seen one other Laurel and Hardy movie, the Brats short, but I believe this kind of comedy works better in the short form. I'm not ashamed to admit that I nodded off more than once and I don't think it's just because I watched this after a long work day. It made me think about the season of Metalocalypse with 30-minute long episodes, which isn't a bad season at all, but I think that series worked best when it kept things lean and mean. I'm still glad I got to hang out with this classic pair another time, and if anything, it's nice to discover what the meetings of secretive fraternal organizations like the one this movie satirizes are like. To quote Patrick Stewart's head Stonecutter in The Simpsons episode Homer the Great, I guess they really are all about "getting drunk and playing Ping-Pong."
This look into Laurel and Hardys' home lives has its moments. When it comes to generating laughs - and cringe - you can't go wrong with trying to maintain a lie, and this movie's many variations on this trope work more than they don't. I especially like when the pals discover that one of their fellow Sons of the Desert happens to be Laurel's brother-in-law as well as their story about how they "ship-hiked" their way out of Honolulu. It also succeeds at utilizing the duo's talent for physical comedy, the highlights being Hardy's failed attempt at pretending to be sick and the scene involving smashed plates, which makes the one in The Godfather seem tame. Also, as a lover of movie trivia, it was nice to finally see Hardy deliver what could be this franchise's most iconic line, "here's another nice mess you've gotten me into."
Even though this is not a long feature film, it still has too much slack for me to fully embrace. To be fair, I've only seen one other Laurel and Hardy movie, the Brats short, but I believe this kind of comedy works better in the short form. I'm not ashamed to admit that I nodded off more than once and I don't think it's just because I watched this after a long work day. It made me think about the season of Metalocalypse with 30-minute long episodes, which isn't a bad season at all, but I think that series worked best when it kept things lean and mean. I'm still glad I got to hang out with this classic pair another time, and if anything, it's nice to discover what the meetings of secretive fraternal organizations like the one this movie satirizes are like. To quote Patrick Stewart's head Stonecutter in The Simpsons episode Homer the Great, I guess they really are all about "getting drunk and playing Ping-Pong."