Sunday, April 15, 2012

The Three Stooges

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
The Three Stooges
Released April 13, 2012. Now in theaters

The classic comedy trio is brought to the big screen by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. If you don’t remember this brother duo, they are responsible for the raucous comedies Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary (their magnum opus), and Me Myself and Irene. Since their movies always contain a bit of slapstick, it seems like a natural that they’d take on the masters of the art. The Stooges movie is a bit tame by Farrelly standards only garnering a PG rating. The most important feature if you’re making a movie about legends is the casting. The Farrellys have chosen Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe), Sean Hayes (Larry), and Will Sasso (Curly) for the honors.

The Stooges are introduced in the film when they are literally thrown on the doorstep of an orphanage in a gym bag from a speeding car. The nun, Mary-Mengele (Larry David), who opens the bag receives an immediate eye poke. The other nuns discover three babies that have amazingly weird haircuts, haircuts they will keep into adulthood. Mary-Mengele will also be the unfortunate recipient of Stooge fiascos as they grow up. The boys, having never been adopted, work for the orphanage as maintenance men when they become adults. The orphanage suffers a financial crisis, needing an immediate influx of $830,000 to stay afloat. The boys set out in the world for the first time to get the orphanage the needed cash. Of course, since they are the Stooges, they have less an idea how to do this than the average person. While attempting to make the needed money, they start a salmon farm on a golf course, Moe becomes a reality TV star, and they become embroiled in a murder plot involving a friend who was adopted from the orphanage many years ago.


You can tell this was a labor of love for the Farrellys. They get every aspect of the Stooges right down to Larry wearing clothes too big and Curly wearing clothes too small. The sound effects are spot on. You think you’re watching a Stooge short when they dish out the usual Stooge brutality. The actors playing the Stooges must have done some in depth character study as each match the originals’ personalities poifectly (wanna slap myself for that pun). The best characterization I would say is Moe. Chris Diamantopoulos and the young actor that plays Moe as a pre-teen child are excellent down to their facial expressions. Supporting characters include Jane Lynch as the put upon Mother Superior and Sofia Vergara as their friend’s murderous sexpot wife. For my money, Moe slapping and eye gouging the overtanned meatheads from the Jersey Shore is worth the price of admission. The only times the film suffers are at the orphanage. Sure, the Stooges do many funny things while they’re there, but the interaction with the kids starts to get overly sentimental for my tastes.

If you don’t “get” the Stooges, you won’t “get” this movie. Stooge fan or no Stooge fan, the film won’t do much to change your opinion. I am a fan of the originals, a huge one in fact, so I admit this review is a little biased. Take it with a grain of salt if you like, but I would personally high five the Farrellys if I could.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

***½ stars (only for overdramatic sentimentality at times)

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!

2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.

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