I think the kids might enjoy this more than adults. The situations are amusing -- imagine Bob Hope as Jesse James' bodyguard in Missouri -- but they're kind of slow, a little drawn out, funny in a sitcom way. The punch lines are followed by rather long silences while the audience is supposed to be laughing. The kids might be laughing but the grown-ups, I suspect, are no more than smiling. I'm not a curmudgeon either. I laughed along with my twelve-year-old at some of Hope's earlier Western comedies, like "Fancy Pants." The usual wisecracks are muted. Slightly off kilter. And I didn't notice any playing with the fourth wall, usually a refreshing surprise. Hope is funny enough as his usual quivering coward, but I miss the fast pacing of his 1940s comedies and the easy exchange of barbs between him and Bing Crosby in the Road movies.
Maybe I AM an old curmudgeon.
Maybe I AM an old curmudgeon.