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.

Boba_Fett1138 The movie is not halve as bad as people want to make you believe it is.What is the reason why so many people hate this movie? Is it because it's Laurel & Hardy's last one together and it's not their best? Or is it because of the lack of Laurel & Hardy regulars? Or because it's not made by the Hal Roach studios or 20th Century Fox? Definitely true that this movie is not a successful attempt to revive Laurel & Hardy and bring them to the '50's. It's also definitely true that the movie is far from their best but honestly, the movie still entertains well, making this movie also far from their worst. Not the most worthy 'goodbye' movie imaginable but an entertaining and suiting goodbye nevertheless. Both of them retired from movies after completing this one.The movie still features some great slapstick moments and the chemistry between Laurel & Hardy is obviously still very much present. It also makes this movie better than most of their movies together from the '40's. Quite a surprise that the slapstick humor still works out as great as it does, considering that the days of slapstick comedy had been over, ever since the '30's.The story is perhaps not as entertaining as it could had been and it features too many sidekicks and characters, with as a result that the movie looses its focus on the boys at times. A shame, because they are still the ones that really carry and make the movie.Sad to see in what poor form Stan Laurel was at the time of making this movie. He really looked ill and old, which he also of course was. He was well over 60 years old already. But after a surgery he fully recovered and still lived for another 15 years, before dying in 1965, 8 years after his good friend Oliver Hardy.An entertaining, though not perfect goodbye to the boys, Laurel & Hardy and the end of 3 decades of fun, humorous, quality slapstick entertainment of movies that are still being watched and loved by people all over the world.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Lee Eisenberg In their final movie together, Laurel and Hardy land on an island and try to establish their own society, but things don't quite go as planned after uranium is discovered on the island. "Atoll K" (also known as "Utopia") has the usual sorts of things that one would expect in a Laurel and Hardy movie, what with the various mishaps and things. It's surprising to learn that this flick was from France, but I'm sure that these guys are loved the world over.All in all, this is a good lesson about what might happen when one tries to form a society. Stan and Ollie will definitely live on in the annals of comedy forever.

knsevy ***SPOILERS FOR THE SPOILED***'Utopia' (AKA 'Atoll K') is widely reviled by Laurel & Hardy fans. Being a fan of the Boys, myself, I had to find this stinker and see what was wrong with it. For the most part, very little is wrong, except for atrocious overdubbing, and Stan's appearance. He filmed this movie while in the throes of illness, and it really shows. He looks horribly drawn - actually, he looks drawn and quartered - but he soldiers on, playing the man-child character we know him best as. Similarly, while Babe Hardy is definitely aging and carrying more weight than in the team's glory days, his characterization is just as wonderful as ever.There are plenty of instances in this film where classic L&H humor takes over, such as the dinner scene in the cabin of the boat, or the cargo-loading sequence. The Boys are consistently in-character and deliver their lines with their usual spark.Knowing the story of the production of Utopia, it's amazing to me that they managed to grind out a movie, at all, let alone one that stayed true to Laurel & Hardy's long-established characters. As bad is it is, Utopia captures, for the last time on film, the essential sweetness of the Boys, and while I wouldn't recommend it as a 'great' Laurel & Hardy film, I wouldn't warn people away from it.My only real problem is with the ending. I'm one who does get tired of the stereotypical happy ending, but this is a COMEDY. The bad guys should get their comeuppance, and the good guys should win in the end. That's the way of comedy. Even the Great Stone Face, Buster Keaton, played to this rule. Though his characters sometimes wound up losing the game, you got the sense that they weren't daunted or hurt by it. In Utopia, our sweet girl winds up marrying the smarmy jackass she was running from, our stowaway stone mason winds up with his dreams crushed, building fences, the man who only wanted a country to call his own winds up killed and eaten, and the Boys themselves are stranded on an island with all their food and supplies stolen. It's just too sad, for a comedy.This film is usually found in the bargain bin, and it's worth that kind of price to see the Boys' last film, together. Don't expect miracles, but I found quite a few laughs in it.