WAY OUT WEST (1937) **1/2 I like Laurel and Hardy. I really do. They look funny. There are lots of good things about them. I like that they can make an entire movie out of two lines worth of plot. I don't know, though, if I truly get them. I don't quite understand why.everyone thinks they're so great. I think they're funny, but not as funny as the funniest stuff of.well, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Adam Sandler, you know, lots of people. Now I don't think I think they are. I think I don't think this because maybe I'm measuring my responses physically. Bill and Eddie make me laugh out loud, Laurel and Hardy make me wheeze. Belushi and Monty Python make me cry and my belly ache, Laurel and Hardy occasionally make me kind of snort. So maybe I'm just not measuring it right. Maybe it's a cultural thing. I do know that this is a funny one, and one of the moments in it is about as funny and whimsical and unlikely as anything. Beyond that, though, I guess I have to admit that maybe I thought that James Finlayson was the funniest actor in the whole thing, and the burro was maybe second. Maybe I'm just stupid.
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