Wordiezett So much average

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Be Big!" is an American 24-minute black-and-white film from 1931, so this one is already over 85 years old and it stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, still considered the perhaps best comedy duo in film history today. This is one of their sound short films in fact and from the audio you can see that the medium sound film really hadn't progressed far at that point. It does sound a bit amateurish. But this is not the biggest problem here. I think it is the script that just feels pretty uninspired even if the two in the lead come close to making it work at least partially and probably nobody could have done it better then them. However, it all feels really uninteresting and that surprises me a bit as the two writers and the director were very successful and prolific back in the day and had also worked wih Stan and Ollie on several occasions. The one thing I found particularly weak was the wives reference, one that is common in the duo's films that they are bossed around by their wives and at least kinda deserve it. But the actresses did not impress me and honestly, they are their wives! There needs to be at least a bit of caring, sympathy and compassion there, but they were 100% antagonists. So all in all, this film is far from being as funny as I wanted it to be and for me it is npowhere near the best I've seen from Laurel and Hardy and I've seen a lot. Gotta give this one a thumbs-down. The material is maybe good enough for 10-12 minutes max if we take the better sequences only. Watch something else instead.

Steve Pulaski Be Big! should be one of those early, late-1800's film shorts that lasted about a minute or a minute and a half in length and were clearly spur-of-the-moment and provided a momentary relief from the drudgery of ones day. Instead, it's a nearly thirty-minute long, failed attempt at comedy from one of America's most famous comedy duos, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The short concerns the two men about to go to Atlantic City with their wives until Hardy abruptly changes plans when his pal calls and informs him of a stag party that is taking place in their honor. In order to get out of the trip, Hardy pretends to be ill and in pain and implores Laurel to stay behind, promising to meet the wives in the morning. The plan would be fool-proof if those executing it weren't fools themselves, as much of the short concerns Laurel attempting to pull the boots off of Hardy's feet, resulting in mishaps galore.What ensues is a repetitive and dreadfully overlong account of Laurel attempting to undress Hardy, and being that this is a film with sound and dialog, it clearly functions in that time when screen writing with vocal dialog was something to still be practiced, resulting in Be Big! playing like a silent comedy in terms of its simple narrative. Because of this, the simplicity of the short is also its greatest issue, with the short never reaching comedic heights in terms of writing or performances, and we're robbed of the great situational comedy typically brought on by the team of director James W. Horne and writer H.M. Walker. Be Big! does have one memorable thing about it; it's what I was practically telling the short's ambition and scope to do while watching it.Starring: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Directed by: James W. Horne.

Jackson Booth-Millard Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Ollie and Stan are packed for a trip to Atlantic City with their wives (Isabelle Keith and Anita Garvin). But then Ollie gets a phone call from their friend Cookie (Baldwin Cooke) who invites them to a surprise stag party, he originally refuses because of the wives, but he agrees when he hears of things to expect. So Ollie gets talcum powder on his face, and pretends to be very sick to fool the wives, and Stan as well, and they go without them. So the wives leave for the train station without the boys, and they start dressing in their special clothes, while the wives find out that they just missed the train, and go back. While dressing for the stag night, Ollie manages to get his boot stuck on his foot, only to realise that he has got Stan's pair, so there is a big struggle to get one boot off. They try pulling hard on the rocking chair, using the boot jack and a little hammering, manoeuvring on the fold away bed, and a final backwards fall into the bath. Eventually the wives return home, and the boys hide in the fold away bed, and when the wives know why, they shoot the boys (in the bed) through the window, crashing, and landing in the below pond. Also starring Charlie Hall as Bellboy. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!

Coxer99 Stan, Ollie and their wives are going on a trip to Atlantic City, but when Ollie gets a call from a friend saying a stag party is being thrown in his (and Stan's) honor, he cannot resist. The boys get themselves into their usual bit of trouble, although the laughs here are a bit strained, most notably in the long winded boot sequence which went on entirely too long.