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It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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.

THE FINISHING TOUCH, a silent short featuring Laurel & Hardy and shot in 1928, features one of my favourite gags ever put on film: Ollie insists on carrying a handful of nails in his mouth, with predictable results. Yes, it's entirely silly and doesn't even get close to realistic, but nevertheless the execution and acting on the part of Hardy make this one of the funniest things I've seen.Elsewhere, THE FINISHING TOUCH is a very good effort from the twosome. As in all of their best plots, they play a couple of workmen, here trying to build a 'dream home'; what transpires will surprise nobody. The gags are laboured, occasionally forced, and of the most basic slapstick, and yet they work, and work, and work. The only downside is that this is a silent, so it misses all of the crashing sound effects that would have added immeasurably to the experience.

THE FINISHING TOUCH is a film typical of classic Laurel and Hardy films. There are many aspects of it that are seen in their other films. For instance, they boys are building a house and is very reminiscent of a few of their films such as BUSY BODIES and DIRTY WORK--all films where the team are trying to build or fix things and end up destroying everything around them. Additionally, at the end of the film, there is a big fight scene that sure brings to mind their BIG BUSINESS, TWO TARS and THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY. Now all this familiarity isn't bad--especially when the films are as enjoyable and fun as all the ones I just listed.Stan and Ollie are contracted to do the finishing work on a new house. However, since they are idiots, the tend to mostly break everything and hurt themselves in the process. In addition to Ollie getting the worst of many of these accidents, an innocent cop (Edgar Kennedy) gets banged around pretty badly as well--even though he was just an innocent bystander--a particularly even-tempered one at that. The film ends with the home being pretty much like you'd expect if Stan and Ollie had built it and there are many wonderful stunts at the end of the film.Overall, it's a lot of fun and is one of the better silent shorts the team made.By the way, watch the dump truck scene near the beginning. The truck dumps a load but only moments later the load magically vanishes due to poor editing and continuity. It doesn't ruin the film at all but I am surprised they didn't fix this mistake.

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.