Now, here’s the thing. A lot of people will be bitching mercilessly about the new Three Stooges trailer…
…but the problem is that all of the comedy in this trailer is exactly like classic Three Stooges, except the Stooges live in the modern day. The performances are just as broad as old Stooges shorts were. The slapstick is just as crude and energetic as old Stooges shorts’ slapstick was. The dialogue is just as forced as old Stooges dialogue was. Will Sasso is just as bald as Curly Howard was.
If the movie is like this trailer, then people who proclaim their love for the original Three Stooges and who say this is garbage will be exposed as poseurs. Hypocrites. Comedy snobs.
(For my part, I am kinda meh about it, which is not a knock on its quality as a Three Stooges movie. I was not always meh about the Three Stooges – but then I turned nine, and swore my allegiance to Lords Julius, Leonard and Arthur forevermore.)
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I’m not ashamed to admit I laughed.
Love it, love it, love it.
I love that they’ve not messed with the Three Stooges. It is what it is – unashamedly slapstick, pure and simple. Thank gawd they didn’t turn it into some darned moralistic buddy comedy.
I would (and probably will) pay good money to watch this, and enjoy the pure (and in this day and age, rare) pleasure of hearing a whole cinema full of folks laugh out loud together at total silliness.
Oh yeah!
I think we might have already seen the best bits in the trailer, but I do like how they haven’t reimagined the Stooges.
How many times have I said “if they want to make a completely different movie then why did they buy the rights to [insert property I loved or at least rather liked here]?”
Several times, that’s how many.
three stooges was never some high class comedy in the first place, and they look to have gotten it down, but they could have gone with a better trailer, not the insert movie here and see clips.
And who can deny the joy of watching Snooki get poked in the eyes?
If the movie is like this trailer, then people who proclaim their love for the original Three Stooges and who say this is garbage will be exposed as poseurs. Hypocrites. Comedy snobs.
When I read this I can’t help but picture the Second Junior Executive saying it.
The effect, for me, is downright weird simply because it *is* such a good reproduction of vintage comedy in a modern setting (though that lobster joke would’ve never passed the Hays Office).
I wonder if they found a reasonable facscimile of Emil Sitka?
@ Jim: No way. That’s Third Junior Executive all the way. Either him or Bigwig. There aren’t enough references to drugs or tits for it to be Second Junior Executive.
It’s all fun and games until they try to remake the Marx Brothers.
Ahem.
That is pure three stooges. There’s no question in my mind. They captured the concept, the actions, and character (what little of it existed) quite perfectly.
It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I’m still not entirely gung-ho about it, though. It seems like they’ve basically taken the Three Stooges and surrounded them with the apparatus of a shitty boring contemporary Adam Sandler or Friedberg&Seltzer comedy. It’s really strange actually.
I think it hit me what I was finding so weird about the trailer: it’s a bit like that creepy Diet Coke commercial where Paula Abdul interacts with CGI zombies of Gene Kelly and Cary Grant.
At least the Farrellys didn’t go that route.
I never could care less about the original Stooges, so I won’t bother with the movie either.
…The Three Stooges work better in the Original Klingon…
I lol’d.
The only problem I really have is how…weird the tone is. Like, the slapstick and funny faces (while very outdated)will appeal to the kids, but there’s this vibe that there’s a lot of adult humor to it. I know some kids films have those subtle jokes for the parents, but the nun in the bathing suit is something that does not fit, and is only in it because it’s a Farrelly Bros film. I think the film’s going to have a lot of that. Also pop culture references. This is like an R-rated Dreamworks film.
Chris Diamantopoulos gives good Moe
Sean Hayes is a better Larry than the original
Will Sasso looks & sounds perfect as Curly, but lacks the full out freneticism of Jerome Howard
KRM is misremembering the Stooges. If they could have shown a nun in that sort of bathing suit, they would have. If they had shown a woman in a 1938 bathing suit, no one would have gotten the joke. And the Stoogens (my grandfather’s word) were full of pop culture references that most people don’t get now.
I do wonder if we’ll see Shemp, the Joe Clones and Emil Sitka in this.
I would preferred not having a Jersey Shore bit, since that feels like it’s taking it into Scary Movie territory but apart from that, it’s fine.
If there’s anything I learned from watching the Three Stooges for the first time earlier this year, it’s that I don’t actually like the Three Stooges. But if they make a movie that people like out of this, more power to them.
Ho-ly shit! It WAS the Stooges! I got goosebumps! As long as they keep the humor clean it looks to be a perfect homage!
Goddamn that eye-poking thing makes me freak out.
Honestly, this seems to be right up there with classic Stoogery in some respects (the basic “headache” joke, the eye pokery), and they certainly look the part. Also, they’re supposedly doing it as three shorter works instead of one big one, which is probably for the best, because people tend to remember the short Stooge material more than the long stuff.
I guess I’d have to wait and see how it turns out.
One other thing that I think added to the odd feel… these new Stooges are TALL. Will Sasso’s 6’3″! Not like the days where everyone would tower over them…
The lobster bit was the best part of the trailer. That’s all I got.
Is it wrong of me to suggest that Moe still looks less fake than Snooki .. or any jersey reality show character?
MGK, one of these days you will come to Portland, as everyone does sooner or later. And you and I will get very drunk, and tie up all of my friends, and make them watch Brain Donors with us, and when we are done some will have seen the light, and those we will untie. Those who have not, we will leave bound, and we will lock the doors behind us to let them starve in darkness. Because if they didn’t lose their shit at the prison-song medley, then fuck ’em.
Actually a lot of it does come down to personality. Shemp was an able comedian, but Curly brought a whimsey his older brother lacked. Joe Besser was a terrible third Stooge despite a successful career elsewhere, but Curly-Joe DeRita fit right in. (My seeing the Stooges movies he was in at an early age is likely an aid to that.)
I liked Besser b/c of his prissiness as opposed to Larry & Moe. Shemp never did much for me (tho I know there are lots of fans who think he was funnier than Curly). Joe De Rita was…just Joe De Rita
..and another thing about Besser: Guy worked with the Stooges, A&C, and Spinal Tap. He’s earned his place at the table
I really hope they take on a series of odd jobs that involve safety issues that would make OSHA headquarters explode.
I laughed at parts of that. But I also feel like I shouldn’t have, and that laughing at it somehow makes me a bad person.
These guys are way too tall to be the Stooges.
Whether the funny parts carry the day in this movie or not I don’t know yet. The actual stooges look good though. I’m especially impressed with Sean Hayes. Laryy is a tough part to carry off.
As for Curly being funnier than Shemp, look at it this way, if your older brothers are Sam and Moses Horwitz, you got a license to print funny. You learned all that stuff when you were too small to walk. Remember that Julius used to claim that Milton and Herbert were the really funny Marxes. Besides Karl.
Just waiting for the first news report of some kids gouging each others’ eyes out in imitation of this.
I MUST SEE THIS THING.
Three things.
I already know Will Sasso will be a perfect Curly because there were times in his Mad TV days where he basically played Curly anyway. I’m not sold on the other guys, though.
I feel like a “new Stooges in the style of old Stooges” would have them accidentally joining a terrorist cell filled with Muslim stereotypes only to foil their plans (also accidentally) after poking each other in the eyes while in the unemployment line. A proper “New Stooges” would offend way more people than this movie.
I will never get the Shemp-hate.
I never really liked the Stooges, but this actually looked less bad than I’d imagined.
I am very ashamed to admit this, but I actually googled who Sister Bernice was after seeing her get out of that pool. Yikes.
It’s Kate Upton, btw.
I get the slapstick is the same at all, but there’s something vaguely unwholesome and sleazily FOX about this whole trailer. The original Stooges probably did not have this sort of sexualization. And it gives off a late ’90s/early ’00s brain dead flick vibe, the sort of thing from See Spot Run to Jack and Jill. It just seems really trashy.
I’m not going to claim that the Stooges were high-class comedy or that this isn’t a pretty good interpretation of their schtick. They weren’t and it is. But it still bugs me for reasons I can’t explain. Maybe it’s that the historical distance is so much greater with this material that decontextualizing it just feels wrong. Maybe it’s just horror at Hollywood stooping to this level for ideas. Maybe it’s the presence of the Jersey Shore cast for cheap pop culture yuks about two years after they stopped being funny. I dunno.
Just deep down somewhere in my bones this feels wrong to me, unnatural, even an abomination. The Stooges don’t belong in this time, and I don’t belong in a theater seat watching them.
I think much of the Besserhass is partially because he wasn’t involved in the physicality so much, partially because he saw Larry’s face and thought “no thank you” (while Larry did had some scarring, it was actually from a childhood accident) and partially because of the PTA looming over their heads.
I’m surprised that people don’t like Shemp, though I imagine that most of that is that he’s not Curly.
Hey, I like Shemp. He was funny, but in a different way from the others. The gag with the bellows camera where he’s using it to sniff around like a bloodhound is classic. I don’t know if that was scripted or he improvised it, but he carried it off either way. I’ve seen him in a few other things and he was good in them, too.
I just like Curly better with the Stooges.
There actually was some risque material in early Stooges shorts. Including gags where pretty women lost some of their clothing. I think the Hays Commission ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code ) put an end to that. (I think I have the timing right.)