everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is a crying shame that of all of Laurel and Hardy's films, this one is by far the easiest to obtain, at least in North America, along with "The Flying Deuces" (They're nearly always packaged together!). A word of advice to anyone who has never watched a Laurel and Hardy film who happens to purchase one of these DVDs: Watch "The Flying Deuces" first! It is a very enjoyable film released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1939. Seeing Stanley looking obviously and profoundly ill is not the way you want to start your L&H experience! It'll probably be your last!! With that said, this film does indeed have some merits, the premise of Stan and Ollie forming their own island government certainly had potential! Sadly, a number of things sank it: 1/ A director who seemed more interested in filming scenery (Leo Joannon spent three days filming a lake because he thought it was a suitable photographic subject!). 2/ Stan fell ill shortly after production finally began. In many scenes that might have otherwise been funny, his profoundly sickly appearance makes me feel like his trials are inhumane rather than amusing. Stan was reputed to be ill during the filming of "Swiss Miss," but there is no need to be informed of it in "Atoll K." It is all too painfully evident! What could have been done with this story at Roach ten years earlier, or at least with Stan in better health, with or without a better director makes the end result all the harder to bear!

This was part of a 3-DVD box-set, and it came with the Laurel and Hardy shorts Mud & Sand, Just Ramblin' Along, Oranges and Lemons, and the Three Stooges ones Brideless Groom and Sing a Song of Six Pants; it also came with another feature, Flying Deuces. The disc this was on came with The Tree in a Test Tube & Malice in the Palace. I haven't watched an awful lot of the duo, and other than the aforementioned ones, it has been years since I did. Not sure why this has such a low rating; it is genuinely funny and clever at its best(honestly, few of the light, goofy and, at times, cartoon-style slapstick gags fall flat), and it seldom, if ever, drags, for the 82 minute running time. It makes fun of politeness, taxes, and other everyday subjects, in spite of the unusual plot of a deceased eccentric uncle(always popular) leaving them an island. Inbetween clumsiness, knocking stuff over, falling, and other natural occurrences that are not presented as if they hurt, weepy Laurel(who looks so old and worn here) and dominating Hardy also explore social issues and government. Is that a good thing? Well, a lot of the way, the treatment of it is great. I don't think they quite keep up the quality all the way, though. Near the end(when this gets "big", with "action", as expected), this gets somewhat unrealistic, employs a sort of deus ex machina, and the conclusion has darkness to it. The FX are decent. Editing and cinematography are fine. A nice amount of laughs, and not boring. I recommend this to big fans of the two. 6/10

For new L&H fans, Stan and Ollie's appearance may be a shock. Stan looks VERY thin and has noticeably aged. Ollie, in contrast, has gained a LOT of weight.If you can overlook their appearance, and the slow moving subplot, Atoll K does have some good comedy routines. However, their more elderly appearance does hamper what would otherwise be good gags. You just can't laugh at Stan while he is dealing with an inflating raft in the ship's cabin. He looks like he's truly in agony, and you want to help him instead of laugh at him. Also, the film is poorly edited. The original movie was 90 minutes long, but when re-released, it was shortened to a more tolerable 60 minutes. Most of the footage taken out was from the subplot, so taking out the extra half hour improved the movie.While "The Boys" had more freedom to write gags and dialogue, nobody else on the crew had any idea what to expect in a L&H picture. Confusion and the illness of Stan and Ollie caused the picture to take an entire year to make! Not long after Atoll K was released, Ollie went on a diet and lost a LOT of weight, but it was too late.

Any real fan of Laurel and Hardy will want to miss this movie. It is so very, very bad, it is actually painful to watch. I've seen it two or three times now and it is always worse then the last time I watched it.Not only does Laurel look so sickly, but the story is a mess, the directing is ham fisted and there is not a single solitary laugh in the whole terrible mess of a movie. It is not worth seeing let alone buying no matter what length it is, since there are a few versions out there.I am not slamming Laurel and Hardy, I love their movies that is why I vow never to watch this thing ever again. It is a pity that this is not one of the "lost" Laurel and Hardy films. Miss it, I warn you!