The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy: For Love or Mummy (1999)

"Come on, Stanley. We gotta put a mummy in a box!"

Directors

John R. Cherry III
Larry Harmon

Cast
Bronson Pinchot - Stan
Gailard Sartain - Ollie
F. Murray Abraham - Prof. Henry Covington
Philip Godawa - Farouk Bin Abdullah
Susan Danford - Leslie Covington
Jeffrey Pillars - Barney the biker
Rick Rogers - Lt. Kowalski
Farouk Valley - Omar as Habib

There's been a lot of horror for me this October. Too much of anything isn't normally good. So, I'm veering towards something more lighthearted. 

And the movie, "The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy: For Love or Mummy " is something I've had on my radar since watching the 2018 biopic, "Stan and Ollie" with Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly. I was too curious to see how a reboot would depict and treat Laurel and Hardy.  

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy aren't a comedic duo that can be rebooted and plopped into current time. But that's what this reboot tries to do. Though slapstick comedy, even Laurel and Hardy's style of slapstick, might be able to work in a modern setting. As for the characters of Laurel and Hardy, it doesn't work. It doesn't even kind of work. They're a product of their time. And they're best loved and appreciated in their respective era. The fact that the title is "The All New Adventures of..." seems to indicate that this was meant to be the first adventure film to be followed by other all new adventures. Thankfully, that didn't happen. 

In this movie, Stan Thinnius Laurel (Bronson Pinchot) and Oliver Fattius Hardy (Gailard Sartain) are somehow related to the OG Laurel and Hardy. I had to Google that detail and found they're the great-grand nephews of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. If it's mentioned in the movie, I must have missed it. 

Anyways, the film takes place in Florida as Stan and Ollie assist with an Egyptian exhibit which includes rare artifacts curated by Prof. Henry Covington (F. Murray Abraham). 

One of these rare artifacts is the mummified corpse of Hootah. 

Little does Covington know that an Egyptian cult is holding rituals to bring the mummy back to life. And the cult leader wants to make Convington's daughter, Leslie (Susan Danford) the bride of the mummy. 

Ollie, by the way, has the hots for Leslie. Anyways, the mummy is brought to life, scares everyone, and wreaks havoc. Stan and Ollie fumble around trying to make everything right again, and hilarity ensues. 

I didn't know this reboot existed until sometime within the last ten years. 

I do recall seeing a newspaper article back around 1996 or 1997 that a live-action Laurel and Hardy movie was in a planning stage. But the article was unclear what kind of movie writers and producers were planning. I assumed, based on the 1994 "Little Rascals" reboot, this Laurel and Hardy movie was going to be something similar. That was the last I had heard of it, until I caught wind of this movie within the last ten years. I never watched it until now. 

It might be argued that it's a good introduction for younger people to Laurel and Hardy. On second thought...na'hhh. The real Laurel and Hardy are a great introduction. 

Gailard Sartain and Bronson Pinchot are certainly respectful of the source material. Sartain, especially, does a spot-on portrayal of Oliver Hardy. He often plays southern characters. And Oliver Hardy is a son of Harlem, Ga. So, he's certainly a good casting decision. The performance seems natural to him. 

Gailard Sartain (left) and Bronson Pinchot as Laurel and Hardy in "For Love or Mummy."

Sartain is best known for his role as "Chuck" in the Ernest P. Whirl movies, "Ernest Saves Christmas" and "Ernest Goes to Jail." He plays "Jake the Chef" in "Ernest Goes to Camp." He also plays the same  character in the Saturday morning TV series, "Hey Vern, It's Ernest!"
Bronson Pinchot, of course, is best known for starring as "Balki Bartokomous" in one of my absolute favorite sitcoms, "Perfect Strangers." He also plays "Serge" in all four "Beverly Hills Cop" movies. 

It's worth mentioning Pinchot played Stan Laurel before in the episode "The Gazebo" from season seven, episode six of "Perfect Strangers." 

At times, Pinchot nails his performance as Stan. Other times, it's simply too forced. Pinchot is working as best he can with what he's given. He also always has Stan speak in malapropisms. It's something Stan used to do in the original films on occasion, especially when he would come up with a plan that was actually sensical and sound, until Oliver would ask him to "tell me that again." The joke was Stan couldn't repeat his idea with any sense. In this movie, he does it all the time. 

Perhaps the most unique presence in this movie is that of Academy Award winning actor, F. Murray Abraham. His presence is certainly welcomed as Abraham is an absolutely amazing actor. 

Aside from his role as Antonio Salieri in the 1984 film "Amadeus," which he won an Academy Award for best actor, I love his performance in the 2000 film "Finding Forrester." 

It's worth mentioning Abraham has a cameo as a cab driver in Neil Simon's 1975 movie "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" with Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft. One of these days, I want to do a Neil Simon movie-a-thon and really want to talk about that movie. 

Anyways, Stan and Ollie are like fish out of water in this movie, but not in the comedically natural way I'm sure the producers hoped for. It feels way too artificial. Stan and Ollie don't fit in this modern scenario.  

For instance, one scene has Stan driving a modern pickup truck. It just feels off. A lot of the jokes feel off as does a majority of Pinchot's performance as Stan. But to his credit, his respect for Stan Laurel is very visible. 

What makes Laurel and Hardy funny and appreciated is their chemistry, of course. It's also their reactions to everyday situations that really aren't complex, but they make it so. Then they react to each other reacting to their respective situations. 

The scenario provides the complexity and just has "Laurel and Hardy" fumble around reacting to everything. 

It mimics their personalities, but it doesn't capture what made the real Laurel and Hardy funny and enjoyable. The story doesn't feel anything like a Laurel and Hardy feature or short. They don't fit in this story, and the story doesn't fit Laurel and Hardy. 

Still, Bronson Pinchot and Gailard Sartain give their performances their all. The love and respect is there. At the same time, their presence in this movie is like running into Laurel and Hardy entertainers at Universal Studios wandering around entertaining park guests. 

Co-director Larry Harmon, who's famous for playing "Bozo the Clown" owns the rights to Laurel and Hardy. 

His company, "Larry Harmon Pictures" produced a Bozo the Clown Cartoons along with Popeye, Mr. Magoo, Dick Tracy, and even Laurel and Hardy cartoons. Larry Harmon Pictures was later bought by former Disney animator Hal Sutherland along with voice actor Lou Scheimer and became Filmation. Harmon makes a cheap cameo in this movie. 

Anyways, by the final act of the movie, I just didn't care what was happening

My kids and I put on "Ernest Scared Stupid" a few days before I watched this. And this Laurel and Hardy reboot movie feels like something Ernest would appear in. Maybe it should have been called "Ernest Goes to Egypt" or "Ernest Joins a Cult." Jim Varney would fit much better in this scenario than Laurel and Hardy. That's no surprise really as the film's co-director, John R. Cherry III, directed the Ernest movies beginning with "Ernest Goes to Camp" (1987) to "Ernest in the Army" (1998) - not including "Ernest Goes to School" (1994), which was directed by Coke Sams. Hence, the appearance of Gailard Sartain.

The movie also reminds me of something along the lines of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein." Of course, the writers toss in a few classic Laurel and Hardy routines, such as when they would get their hats switched around, exchange them, and still get their hats mixed up. 

Overall, the comedy and style is very inauthentic so I didn't laugh much.