This movie is billed as a comedy but the story gives little cause for laughter. Instead the movie dramatizes the plight of workers who labor for years in utter obscurity, buried alive in huge bureaucracies where they labor and are then discarded like a worthless commodity. That is not funny, even if it's Harold Loyd acting the role and Preston Sturges as the director. At first the movie seems to be little more than a cheap two-reeler, almost amateurish in its production. But after a while it becomes apparent that the movie contains a subliminal message relating to the human condition and how people have to become almost crazy in order to break through the shackles that smother their individuality and creativity. This theme does not inspire laughter. Indeed it is baffling why this movie was made at all.

Anybody who watches this expecting an example of what made Harold Lloyd the most popular comedian of the 20s (no, it wasn't Chaplin) will be sorely disappointed, and may even think that his earlier films are not worth watching. The truth is, this "comeback film" is nowhere near the quality of his earlier silent films, and especially not "The Freshman", to which this is supposed to be a sequel.***POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING***The problem with this film starts with the first 30 minutes; they are typical of a director whose style is completely inconsistent with Lloyd's trademark 1920s optimism. The first 30 minutes of this film (the footage from "The Freshman" excepted) are spent ridiculing in its entirety the philosophy that made Lloyd's previous films so fun to watch; his go-getter mentality, always making the best of a bad situation. The first part of this movie starts out slowly and depressingly, portraying Harold as a miserable loser who's been in the same job for 30 years who comes to work one day and gets fired.Sound like comedy gold to you? Me neither. It's really not the type of thing that Harold's character is best suited to, and it was only through the faint hope that something better might lie ahead that I kept watching. Thankfully, the movie does get better after the bar scene, where Harold has the first drink of his life and metamorphosizes into something resembling his old character again (he bets on a horse-race against incredible odds and wins a whole load of money, which he promptly uses to buy a circus). From there on, there are a few very funny gags (the best of them having to do with a lion), although there are also too many hysterics on Harold's part for my taste; something that wasn't present in his earlier silent movies. The final scene of the movie pays homage to Harold Lloyd's climb up the side of a building in his 1923 "Safety Last".***END OF SPOIILERS***I'm pretty sure that the only reason that this film's reputation has gotten this high is that almost all of Harold's other films have been owned by his family and though well-preserved, withheld from public view (aside from a limited-release VHS run in the early 90s and regular showings on TCM for those who get it). This is truly a shame, because his earlier works, unlike THIS uneven piece of film-making, are truly great comedic masterpieces on a level with the best of Chaplin's and Keaton's films. I dare anyone who's watched "Safety Last", "The Freshman", "Why Worry?" or "The Kid Brother" to say otherwise.Thankfully, The Harold Lloyd Trust has recently secured a DVD deal with New Line Cinema (27 of his films will be released on DVD in November 2005!) as well as a theatrical release deal with Sony (his films will play in New York City from April to May 2005, and there are also plans for Paris and other places). You can visit the official page of the Harold Lloyd Trust if you want to know more (haroldlloyd.com) Thankfully, Harold will be more visible soon than he has been in the last 50 years! I recommend that nobody buy this uneven movie but wait for his masterworks to come to a theater/store near you!

Preston Sturgess's funniest film and also Harold Lloyd's. Includes clip from Lloyd's silent 20's film, "The Freshman" which includes famous clip of slapstick football game which Marx Brothers must have copied. "The Freshman" also must have influenced Adam Sandler's "The Waterboy". Story of a waterboy at football game who gets into the game, saves the day unexpectedly, and then is hired as an accountant at a bank by an an enthusiastic boss who forgets all about him. After having lost his all his money -- in his own bank -- during the Depression, and remaining in the same dead end job for 20 years, he gets fired by his boss who barely remembers him and gives up on marrying the girl of his dreams who works with him. He then has his first drink (his "sin") and it changes his life in wild ways that even call to mind the film, "Run, Lola, Run". Also calls to mind movies satirizing office work like "Haiku Tunnel" and "Office Space." (1999). Side splitting scenes with real circus animals, including one on a skyscraper ledge with an adorable lion.

This film drags in some parts, and Lloyd I think puts off some modern viewers. The first time I watched it I thought it was the film equivalent of seeing Ali vs. Andre the Giant. But Sturges' brilliance is in here, and the degree to which it is derived from Lloyd is paid homage to in a wonderful, dark, surreal way. How can you not love a film that starts with the last moments of Lloyd's The Freshman and then shows the hero turned into a mail room stooge who gets buried by the corporate system? The ending is wonderfully hypnotic, happy? Well as is always the case, the poor down trodden guy figures out how to operate the machine just enough to produce his own deus ex machina. Sturges and Lloyd look more brilliant and visionary than ever from the vantage point of post-Enron, MCI, etc.