TrueJoshNight
Truly Dreadful Film
Melanie Bouvet
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
thinbeach
The point of the film seems to be: Look how silly this is.Stan and Ollie are contracted to build a house, but as expected, are so useless they only end up destroying things. Every joke is entirely predictable, and even the few chuckles are undermined by a too-casual pace. Most jokes aren't that funny to begin with, so lingering on them certainly doesn't help. Then comes the ending where I guess they want you to believe that throwing things at each other is funny. Who was their target audience, five year olds?If this is your first silent slapstick then who knows, perhaps you will enjoy it more, but being familiar with the genre this one ranks very lowly. With films like 'One Week' and 'The Electric House', Keaton achieved far more laughs out of faulty houses than you'll find here, while Chaplin's 'Pay Day' has much cleverer construction site gags.Given the amount of shorts Stan and Ollie were churning out at the time, I wouldn't be surprised if this thing was put together very quickly, without much foresight.
rdjeffers
Sunday July 16, 12:30pm The Castro, San Francisco"If you must make noise make it quietly."Stan and Ollie play bumbling carpenters attempting to finish a house across the street from a hospital. Edgar Kennedy plays the cop who keeps a close eye on their progress, and inevitable demolition of the house. In one shot, he stands and watches Stan walk past carrying the end of a board on his shoulder. As the board passes by for what seems like a very long time, Kennedy is surprised to see that Stan is also shouldering the other end! He is repeatedly hit over the head, doused in a bucket of glue, then covered with roofing shingles and later flung into a trough of wet plaster for his troubles. Ollie accidentally swallows the handful of nails he puts in his mouth, three times! The two have some fun with an irate nurse. Stan rips a sheet of sandpaper in half when she bends over, so of course she thinks
The finale includes a rock throwing fight with their boss and their large truck with faulty breaks rolling into and completely destroying the house.
Boba_Fett1138
"The Finishing Touch" is a mostly at one location set movie. Because of this the movie hasn't got to concentrate on the story but can concentrate on the slapstick moments and humor instead.This time the boys are building an house. But of course everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. And instead of constructors they are are more slowly turning into demolition men.This is a silent movie, so the movie entirely focuses and relies on its slapstick moments, rather than the dialog or storyline. So fans of simple slapstick humor will find plenty to enjoy in this Laurel & Hardy short.I for one, however do not regard this movie as a totally successful one. Not all of the comical moments work out hilarious, at least not in the way they could have had and because of that the movie is entirely set on one location, the humor is just too much of the same at times.Does have its moments but definitely not the best- and one of the more forgettable Laurel & Hardy silent shorts.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
The Big Combo
In 'The Finishing Touch', directed by a master of slapstick (Clyde Bruckman) and supervised by a pillar of American comedy (Leo McCarey), Laurel and Hardy have fully developed their film personalities. The plot, that reminds Keaton's `One Week' and The Three Stooges `The sitter-downers', is merely an excuse for bringing up the best of the duo's explosive chemistry. The power of their humor relies not in the impact or unawareness of a gag, but in a skillful preparation of the comic situation. Laurel and Hardy's best trick is the anticipation of an effect and the audience's involvement in its prediction. Repetition is fundamental and the pace and timing of the build-up a hard to match one.