Another High Concept Movie that doesn't quite work out.
Harold Lloyd made some of the funniest comedies in the 1920s, right? Right! So if we take the funniest parts of of his funniest movies and make a movie out of just them, it will be even funnier, right? Right.
Well, no, actually. Yes, Harold Lloyd's movies are hilarious, but no, the gag sequences by themselves aren't as funny. Yes, they are wonderful to look at in terms of sheer invention and execution, but without the context of who Harold is this movie and why he happens to be pulling that particular gag, it isn't as funny. It's Harold Lloyd. It's comedy clips. You expect him to be doing something funny, so you're expecting it. Funny is unexpected. "I never saw that one coming". Instead of wondering how he's going to get out of this predicament, you wonder what predicament he's going to get into next.
By all means, go see the Harold Lloyd movies, but see them as they were meant to be seen, not as someone decided forty years later how they should be seen. Even if it was Harold Lloyd.
