Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

mtw120 ATOLL K was the final film Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made. Produced in France in 1950, it was the first film the team had made in about five years. Production on the film was chaotic, with language barriers (Laurel and Hardy were among the few on the set that spoke English), illnesses (Stan's being the worse), and a somewhat incompetent director (Léo Joannon spent three days filming a lake that he thought looked nice).The basic premise is that the Boys have inherited a yacht and an island from Stan's late uncle. The duo journey to their island, but get caught in a storm along the way, eventually landing on an atoll. Joining them are stateless man Antione (Max Elloy), Italian immigrant Giovanni (Adriano Rimoldi), and Chérie (Suzy Delair), a nightclub singer running from her workaholic fiancé. Pretty soon, the rest of the world takes interest in the atoll, leading the castaways to form their own government - with no laws! This film can be enjoyed if one gets beyond its obvious flaws: 1. Health-wise, neither Laurel nor Hardy was particularly well during most of production, and it shows. But one adjusts to their appearance after awhile. Besides, their performances are still top-notch. 2. The dubbing in the English-language print is atrocious. Tons of studio 'noise' can be heard in the background. Incidentally, the great Paul Frees did the English dubbing for Max Elloy's character.3. The plot gets a bit dark during the film's second half, with the comedy taking second place to the story. However, the first half of the film is quite enjoyable. Unlike some of their previous efforts for 20th Century Fox and MGM, Stan and Ollie are entirely in character here. And there is enough fresh material to keep one invested. And the second half does have some memorable bits sprinkled in.Check the film out for yourself and form your own opinion. One word of advice: try to get the uncut 100 minute version of the film. The plot makes more sense in that print than in UTOPIA, the American edit.

Theo Robertson This movie has a terrible reputation but I like to make up my own mind on things . The omens weren't good however and the fact that this movie is known by at least three titles , has three directors who are uncredited and four screenwriters who are then instinct tells you that you're going to be watching something of a mess . Alongside this a common criticism for the movie is that Stan and Ollie have lost their spark some six years after making there last film together and about fifteen years after they'd reached their peak . I wasn't filled with optimism and expected to hate every unfunny moment of it Perhaps because I had so low expectations I found ATOLL K not as bad as I was expecting . That said I wasn't expecting much . Stan and Ollie do retain a natural genius for slapstick and one liners but they're let down by everything surrounding them . This is also a public domain film and the picture and sound quality is very poor so right away you're irritated by the mis-en-scene. Having four directors didn't help either and what was needed was a mere one director and it's a pity he wasn't James Parrot or any of the other directors who worked with the duo in the 1930s . As you probably know this is a French/Italian co-production which means the supporting cast are non English speakers whose lines have been dubbed . This is apparent when someone talks and their mouths never match their words . They also speak in a dull monotone notorious in dubbed movies Not to be too negative because Stan and Ollie still sometimes show the almost supernatural ability to make an audience smile . Ollie is his usual arrogant bullying self and Stan ( despite looking slightly ill ) still manages the occasional laugh out loud one liner such as " There's something wrong with your eyes . When we get to the island you'll need to see an optimist " . I'm certainly not saying it's a great film but what I am saying it's a slightly mediocre comedy saved by Stan and Ollie

bkoganbing After leaving 20th Century Fox when their last American made feature film was completed in 1945, Laurel and Hardy took a long rest due to Stan's health problems. Oliver Hardy did take two featured roles in The Fighting Kentuckian and Riding High, but Utopia marked Stan's return and final film and the team's final film. Would they have gone out on something like Sons Of The Desert.The film is about Stan inheriting an island in the South Seas and a yacht to sail there with Ollie. They do land on an uncharted island and declare it home along with Max Elloy and Adriano Rimoldi who sailed with them. Later on the boys add some female population in the form of French cinema star Suzy Delair. Of course this is Laurel and Hardy so they're gentlemen, but what was wrong with other two?A survey party eventually comes and uranium is discovered. The boys were lucky it wasn't oil, but uranium turns their little paradise into a nightmare.Two things are terribly wrong with this film. Both Stan and Ollie were ill during the making, especially Stan and I guess it's a matter of opinion as to whether they were lucky to finish it at all. Laurel aged terribly from when last seen on screen and Ollie wasn't looking too good either. But Laurel and Hardy's comedy is simply not built for political satire. Possibly a Marx Brother or three could have made something of Utopia. Can you see Groucho as head of the new island that Ollie dubs Crusoeland?Utopia also doesn't have the production values of Hal Roach Studios let alone one of the American majors. The dubbing is terrible and the sound even worse.I think this would be a painful film for fans of Stan and Ollie to watch.

yelsnebynot It is a crying shame that of all of Laurel and Hardy's films, this one is by far the easiest to obtain, at least in North America, along with "The Flying Deuces" (They're nearly always packaged together!). A word of advice to anyone who has never watched a Laurel and Hardy film who happens to purchase one of these DVDs: Watch "The Flying Deuces" first! It is a very enjoyable film released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1939. Seeing Stanley looking obviously and profoundly ill is not the way you want to start your L&H experience! It'll probably be your last!! With that said, this film does indeed have some merits, the premise of Stan and Ollie forming their own island government certainly had potential! Sadly, a number of things sank it: 1/ A director who seemed more interested in filming scenery (Leo Joannon spent three days filming a lake because he thought it was a suitable photographic subject!). 2/ Stan fell ill shortly after production finally began. In many scenes that might have otherwise been funny, his profoundly sickly appearance makes me feel like his trials are inhumane rather than amusing. Stan was reputed to be ill during the filming of "Swiss Miss," but there is no need to be informed of it in "Atoll K." It is all too painfully evident! What could have been done with this story at Roach ten years earlier, or at least with Stan in better health, with or without a better director makes the end result all the harder to bear!