I was really looking forward to ‘Stan & Ollie’. I love the old Laurel and Hardy films, like the hysterically funny ‘A Chump at Oxford’ (1940).

Judging from the trailer, ‘Stan & Ollie’ looked like it would be a fitting tribute. Today’s opening day for the film arrived with it accompanied by lavish praise from the critics, according to whom the film is ‘incredibly funny’ (it’s not) and ‘sublime’ (it’s not).

‘Stan & Ollie’ was disappointing not because it’s a bad film. It’s actually good, it just gets nowhere near the heights it could have achieved and which the critics seem to have declared for it.

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are both brilliant, as are the rest of the excellent cast.

The cinematography is very fine, too; the film looks great.

What lets everything down is the appalling soundtrack – twee, saccharine musak that robs the film of its emotional depth and which is a permanent irritant running through the whole thing, undermining the excellence of the acting and the witty script.

The film is a gentle and affectionate tribute, but it doesn’t have any big laughs. There were two or three chuckles from the audience at the Friday showing I went to, but none of the guffaws that the original Laurel and Hardy films would have elicited.

It’s an enjoyable and likeable film, but far from the masterpiece that the reviews would have you believe.

If I’d gone to it with lower expectations I would have enjoyed it more.  

There was an added poignance to the scene where Ollie announces that he will be retiring due to ill health, because today was the day when tennis player Andy Murray held a tearful press conference to announce that he will be retiring due to ill health. I’m sure that will have struck a chord with other members of today’s audience.

Feeling distinctly underwhelmed when ‘Stan & Ollie’ ended, we headed to nearby Dynamo bar for a couple of superb beers by Scottish craft brewers Six Degrees North – their IPA and the Wanderlust Wheat beer.

A couple of very tasty fish suppers from Tay Fry Inn then set us up for the walk home along Perth Road, a crescent moon hanging over the Tay on this cool and breezy January evening.

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