Steve Coogan

Will Gompertz reviews Stan & Ollie

It doesn't attempt to poison their legacy, but to celebrate and acknowledge it, while contemplating what it must have been like for this odd couple to come to terms with each other, their shared past, and uncertain future.

Stan & Ollie: story of Laurel and Hardy's final tour

The critically acclaimed film Stan & Ollie is released in UK cinemas on Friday. It documents the legendary comedy duo's final tour, which came to an abrupt end in the English city of Plymouth in May 1954.

Stan & Ollie review

If you need your heart warmed and to have some laughs along the way, this is will do the trick absorbing, amusing and sentimental, perfect winter viewing.

Stan & Ollie review

It could be that this heartwarming film is more likely to be cherished by the over-50s, who will consider it a treat to join the trail of the lonesome pine.

Stan & Ollie review

A heartfelt and hilarious tribute to comedy's biggest legends.

Film review: Stan And Ollie

While it's a shame that Reilly has not had a BAFTA nod - the Oscars might balance things of course - maybe this film is more of a landmark for Coogan. It might just be the first time he has played a role onscreen where there is no hint whatsoever of Alan Partridge in the performance.

Stan & Ollie: Hollywood's greatest comedy double act

Hollywood has a magical roll call of hilarious double acts... Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. But the greatest of all was the inimitable pairing of Laurel and Hardy, who appeared in dozens of films together as the kings of slapstick comedy.

Review: Stan & Ollie

This is an adorable film, sweetly melancholic, bathed in the golden (syrupy) light of a tender friendship. It will surely be a shoo-in for Christmas or Boxing Day TV for years to come.

Steve Coogan and John C Reilly are perfectly cast as Laurel & Hardy in Jon S Baird's late-years biopic Stan & Ollie, a gentle, melancholic look at the beloved duo long after they've fallen out of favour in Hollywood. Catching up with them as they're reduced to undertaking what seems like a humiliating British tour of regional music halls in 1953, the film explores the complexities of their partnership and the blurring of their on- and off-screen personas as an indifferent-at-first public start turning up in droves to see them. What's good about Baird's film is that it doesn't use their reignited popularity to deliver a bogus triumphalist message; it's more interested in pulling the curtain back on the ephemeral nature of stardom to reveal the fine mess talented performers can get themselves into as they try to negotiate its pitfalls.

Stan & Ollie proves Coogan's certainly no lightweight

A biopic of comedy duo Stan & Ollie has led to Oscar predictions for John C Reilly as Hardy, but Coogan shouldn't be overlooked.