Rating: 
Summary: Let's Hope This Is Just the Beginning...
Review: It's great to see one of The Boys' best features and some of their funniest short subjects coming out on DVD. Let's hope, however, that ALL of their features and shorts will be forthcoming. I would love to see a series of discs, each containing one feature and a few shorts until the entire L & H catalog is released.
Rating:
Summary: At long last......................!
Review: Finally, those of us who love comedy can say there is justice. For too long "The Boys" have been ignored while a host of their impersonators have been given the red carpet treatment in terms of DVD and VHS releases. I hope that this will signal the release of such treasures as "Way out West" and "Two Chumps at Oxford" not to mention all those brilliant shorts. I did purchase some of the Lost Film series on DVD a year ago-they only serve to whet the appetite. I have two young children(13 &11) whom I have successfully converted to fans of the duo through viewings of old tapes. In an era where vulgarity and sledgehammer sexual asides are considered the epitome of high class comedy, the genius of Stan and Ollie will show a new generation that it is possible to make everyone laugh at the same time without offending every 2nd person.
Rating:
Summary: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Review: Good to finally see that the original Laurel & Hardy movies will be released in all their original slendor. Well, at least that's what we all hope for... A large VHS video collection of their movies was available here in the Netherlands in the 80s, but on DVD the boys have not been treated well, apart from some nice releases in Germany. Let's hope this will be the start of a fine series.
Rating:
Summary: There is a God!!!!
Review: I've been a big fan of THE BOYS for a long time and have been waiting for their sound features and shorts to be available in DVD and now,they're here!!Or at least some of them.Let's just hope(and pray)that this won't be the last and they'll put every one out soon!! What would be even better(hope you guys are reading this)is if they added the foreign shorts/features,too along with the American versions...But,for now,this box set is perfect and hopefully there'll be more to come!! Thanks alot guys!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!
Rating:
Summary: About time
Review: Finally, Laurel and Hardy talkies are finally coming to DVD. Up to now, only their silent films and a couple of talkies were on DVD. The box cover indicates the films are digitaly remastered, so the films should look as great as when they first came out over 70 years ago. This first release features four classic shorts and one feature film. They are:
1. Sons of the Desert. A 1933 feature, the boys want to go to chicago for a lodge convention, but their wives have other ideas. So Ollie fakes an illness, for which the cure is a voyage to Hawaii. The boys go to the convention, but the ship their wives think they are on sinks. The wives go to the movies to relax while they await news. And up on the screen and Stan and Ollie corvorting around. This is considered their best feature film.
2. The Music Box. A 1932 short, this is the one film everyone knows. The boys struggle to get a piano up a huge flight of stairs. This film was Laurel and Hardys only Oscar winner.
3. Another Fine Mess. From 1930, Stan and Ollie are vagrants who hide in a mansion to avoid a cop. A man and wife (played by Thelma Todd) come to rent the place. Stan has to act as butler AND the maid, while Ollie acts as the owner of the house. Of course, the real owner shows up, and chaos ensues. A remake of the 1927 silent Duck Soup, Stan Laurel adapted this film from a sketch his father had wrote, called Home from the Honeymoon.
4. Busy Bodies. A 1933 short, Stan and Ollie work in a lumber yard. No real plot, just a funny series of gags put together. Needless to say, by days end, they are out of work.
5. County Hospital. From 1932, Ollie is laid up in the hospital with a broken leg. Stan comes to visit him with hard boiled eggs and nuts. Of course, Stan unwittliy causes such mayhem that they are both thrown out of the hospital. Stan tries to drive Ollie home, but he has been accidently injected with a sleeping drug. Most of the short is funny, but the ending, with a drugged Stan trying to drive, is a big letdown. Because of budgetary constriants, they use rear projection, and it is badly done. Still the hospital scenes make it worthwile.
So, Laurel and Hardy fans, get this when it comes out. If it does well, no doubt more features and shorts will be forthcoming.
Rating: 
Summary: This is NOT the great restoration DVD sold in Europe!
Review: First let me say that these films are the BEST that Laurel & Hardy ever did, they are ***** films! I was excited to get this DVD, finally we were going to see the great restoration work that was done in Europe and sold on DVD there. I have seen their DVDs, and this is NOT the restored version! Problem 1) Over compression causes digital artifacting that makes SONS OF THE DESERT look like VHS at times. The transfer is the old grainy U.S. TV tape. Problem 2) THE MUSIC BOX is compressed from a damaged video tape, there are wrinkles that appear as the boys are unloading the piano. Problem 3) COUNTY HOSPITAL is a grainy copy from the Film Classics re-issue negative. The European DVD is authored from the original MGM issue negative. Leo the lion roars a greating to you to let you know that Europeans are about to see a fine transfer. In the U.S., our DVD only has the soundtrack of the roars over the grainy re-issue titles. Problem 4) BUSY BODIES, while it does have the nice original MGM titles, is grainier than the European restored release. On a slightly positive note, ANOTHER FINE MESS did not undergo restoration in Europe, so their version looks as grainy as ours. It does have the original title section with the two girls reciting the credits. There is a fair documetary that used grainy clips from other shorts not on this collection (giving us a preview of how bad the future DVDs might be) and some nice stills showing you some locations as they look today. Hopefully Artisan & Hallmark will re-master this DVD so that those without access to the European DVDs can enjoy these five classic movies the way they were meant to be seen: sharp without artifacting, on two discs.
Rating: 
Summary: do yourself a favor buy the uk release
Review: i rented this a few months back after hearing the neg. reviews.all i can say this is horrid.sons of the desert has fadeouts where there were none.obviously a tv print.the music box was recorded off tape you can see the tape creases.last week i received the l&h collection.all i can say is wow.all hal roach shorts and features.remastered uncut,original opening mgm logo.it cost me 140.00.it is a region 2 dvd,but if you get a phillis 642 dvd player about 70 bucks which plays all region dvds its fine.if you are atrue l&h fan yo have to order it.
Rating: 
Summary: Long Overdue DVD but...
Review: I was pleased to find a Laurel and Hardy DVD being offered as you really don't find too many "out there", at least here in the states.
However, in spite of the fact that the disc cover promotes these films as being digitally remastered...they arent. I think MANY companies use this term a little too liberally. Transferring a film to DVD, doesn't automatically make it digitally enhanced or digitally remastered.
The L&H shorts chosen for this DVD all had a fuzzy look to them...far from what is considered pristine. The sound well, this WAS back in the early 1930's. I could've accepted a little hiss if the picture itself had been sharper. The original Hal Roach negatives for these shorts exist and should have been utilized. Cabin Fever Entertainment did and AWESOME job with it's Little Rascals VHS release several years ago. Those prints (from original Hal Roach negatives) looked GREAT !!! Why couldn't Hallmark have done the same ??
I gave this DVD three stars for Laurel and Hardy's entertainment alone, these guys gave it their all in these shorts. The enclosed extras weren't too bad either. It would have been 5 stars if Hallmark had lived up to their end of the bargain and given us sharp prints.
Buy this DVD if you're a REAL Laurel and Hardy fan, but don't expect too much and don't pay too much for it either. I only spent $11.00 US dollars for it and feel it's not worth more than that.
Rating: 
Summary: How Dare They?
Review: The prints on this DVD are, for the most part, the same old crappy prints we've been seeing for years on television & home video, even though Hallmark owns beautifully restored prints of most of Laurel and Hardy's best talkies. Guess they thought nobody would notice.
Teach these bozos a lesson & buy the German DVDs!
Rating:
Summary: How Refreshing to Revisit the Humor of the Past
Review: Anyone familiar with and repulsed by today's TV and film "comedies" will find this DVD such a breath of fresh air. I hadn't seen Laurel and Hardy since I was a child 60 years ago. It was quite an experience to encounter their hilarious comedy routines again and to realize how their genius, as seen just in this DVD, planted the seeds for the likes of the Three Stooges, Lucy and Desi and Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners. The "Music Box", in itself, makes this DVD a must-see to brighten anyone's day. So the sound quality was not up to today's standards, but who cares? If you concentrate on the humor, you'll never notice the technical flaws. Besides, that's how audiences heard them during that era.
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