I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

(72%) Chaplin highlights his roller-skating talent in this briskly paced 20 minuter set around Charlie as a waiter. There's some nice somewhat more subtle jokes centred around Charley working out the bill by seeing what customers have split onto their clothes, and a mix-up in the kitchen leading to a diner served a scrubbing brush. Charlie's character is not a complete down and out, or very wealthy, but more fun loving and fancy free, and once he's given an hour of free time he hits the rink. This is very much a standard Chaplin early movie that benefits from his skating ability and charm, although the version I saw is a poor cheap money grab as it needed some restoration.

We all know about Charlie Chaplin's wit, precision and recklessness when it came to tumbles and pratfalls, but who knows about his delicate grace and balletic poise? The Rink is the earliest of his pictures where he really gets to demonstrate this side to his talent, as he whirls effortlessly across the room with elegance as well as skill.Does this display of dexterity conflict with the character of crude and clumsy tramp? You would think so, but it doesn't. True, Charlie's function in his own pictures is to spread mayhem wherever he goes, and now that the character was familiar this premise needed no explanation. The Rink contains some fine examples of how Chaplin makes himself the chaotic centre of attention without actually hogging the foreground. In the early scenes when he is waiting tables he often appears bustling about in the background, but we recognise him from his exaggerated comical style of movement, and everything is arranged and timed so that we focus on the trail of destruction he leaves behind him. And yet Charlie himself is immune to all this. He dances through the world leaving others stumbling or egg-spattered in his wake without getting so much as a scratch on himself – except when the big-time pratfall is required, which will always be spectacular. Looked at this way, it may not make logical sense for him to be an ace on skates, but it does fit in with the general style of his comic persona.But it isn't all about Charlie, and one of the best things about his Mutual pictures is the time he took to showcase his regular co-stars. In The Rink we have the mighty Eric Campbell, looking decidedly ridiculous with his massive body rolling around on skates. We also get the odd sight of Campbell having a go at "flirting", although I should remind readers that popping your cheek doesn't do it for most women these days. This is probably the most prominent role in a Chaplin film for James T. Kelley, who does a good job as a rather silly father-in-law type. John Rand, perhaps the longest-suffering butt of Charlie's antagonistic streak, gets a few more comical comeuppances. And we also have relative newcomer Henry Bergman doing a superb dame act, looking very convincing but still making the most of the rotund ungainliness that was Bergman's speciality.And of course, there is Edna Purviance. Edna had been given disappointingly small parts in the Mutual films (with the exception of The Vagabond) as Chaplin concentrated more on prop gags and winding up Eric Campbell than on romantic angles. Here that trend is reversed and she gets a proper role in the story that prefigures the fully-fledged romantic comedies that would eventually become Chaplin's masterpieces. She is introduced in the first scene with a memorable close-up, demonstrating that her character is important, and Chaplin makes the effort to give her some significance to the story, as oppose to simply having her float around as the obligatory heroine. It's nice to see Ms Purviance back in the limelight, to see her naturalistic charm and acting talents. Chaplin really needed someone like her to complement that sense of grace and beauty that his pictures were beginning to acquire.But let us not forget the all-important statistic – Number of kicks up the arse: 4 (2 for, 2 against)

The Rink, one of Chaplin's most charming early short comedies, starts out with the little tramp working as a waiter, and there is a hilarious short scene where a customer calls him over for his check, and Charlie comes over and writes up the bill based on the food that the guy has spilled all over himself. It seems to me that this was the film that inspired parts of Modern Times, especially the skating and the kitchen scenes. There are some wonderful uses of the IN and OUT doors leading to the kitchen, which do not seem repetitive even after I've seen Modern Times five or six times. One of the most charming scenes in the whole movie is a short piece where Charlie goes behind the bar to mix someone a drink (shaken, not stirred…). It's one of the famous scenes from Chaplin's early career. When Charlie gets off work, he changes back into his famous outfit and heads out to the bus stop. While he is sitting on the bench next to a woman, he pulls off some truly vintage Chaplin behavior that is so spontaneous and so well acted that it makes me think of Chaplin just goofing off in real life. This is what I imagine he was really like a lot of the time.With The Rink, it is easy to see that longer, and more genuine stories are slowly evolving in his early films. It is not a deep story by a long shot, and there is still plenty of high-action physical slapstick comedy, but there is much more here than at most of his previous films.But most of all, the feature skit of the film is the skating scenes in the second half, which are outstanding. It's amazing to me how good Chaplin was on skates, and some of the skits he pulls off here (such as the bouncing up and down on the fat woman) are truly brilliant pieces of slapstick. I have to say that I wish I knew where exactly the film's closing shot was filmed, since it's an outdoor shot and I am always curious to know what parts of Los Angeles are being shown. Excellent show!

This film is laugh out loud funny. Who knew Charlie Chaplin was so graceful (and funny) on roller skates? This short film is watchable by all ages, and despite being close to 90 years old, it is still downright funny. Lookout for a character called Mrs. Stout played by a man in drag.