The Three Stooges, a 2012 film; produced, written, and directed by Peter and Bobby Farralley (the men behind There's Something About Mary, Kingpin, and Dumb and Dumber), was well worth the price of admission (well, I got in free but still, I'd have paid $10 to see it…maybe $5, definitely not $15, but $10 or less). The movie was not like the 2000 television movie, also called
The Three Stooges and starring
Paul Ben-Victor, as Moe,
Evan Handler playing Larry Fine (Handler plays Charlie Runkle on Showtime's
Californication), and
Michael Chiklis as Curly, with
John Kassir playing the role of Shemp. That particular movie was a semi-truthful look at the careers of the actual men, three of them brothers that formed the heart of the comedy act.
If you don't know who The Three Stooges were other than that trio of crazy, wild-haired kooks that smack each other and hit each other with hammers, saws, and other instruments of destruction, then perhaps this movie, and this review, may not be to your liking. However, if you were a fan of those Saturday morning (or daily afternoons) of black and white episodes, normally a half hour long, showing the wild antics of these three men; friends and brothers, as they tried, often in vain and sometimes accidentally successful, to do the right thing, then this movie and discussion are for you.
The cast of this Three Stooges movie is what really makes it;
Will Sasso; who worked on
Madtv and
$#*! My Dad Says, plays
Curly Howard (born Jerome Horowitz), and he was born to play that character, not only is the physical appearance so close, but he has the mannerisms, and child-like nature of Curly down to a tee,
Sean Hayes, who played Jack on television's
Will & Grace, is the only American (having been born in Chicago, where they other two stooges are from Canada) actor in the main trio and he plays
Larry Fine, the frizzy-fuzzy haired brunt of many slaps and eye-pokes, and finally
Chris Diamantopoulos as
Moe Howard, and this is the one actor I knew nothing about prior to the seeing the movie. His Moe, although still the "Boss Stooge", is not only the boss and often violent aggressor against his dim-witted fellows, but his character has heart. The scene where he, as a youth, decides more than anything he wants his friends by his side, it could choke a person up, if not for the Farralley brother's swift change of pace that makes a heartfelt moment into a slapstick gag.
That's the second thing that makes this movie work; the humor. When I was a child I learned real quick what was funny, to me at least; Abbott and Costello, Hope and Crosby, Martin and Lewis, the Marx Brothers, and The Three Stooges. Hope and Crosby (Bob and Bing) and Martin and Lewis (Dean and Jerry) were each the same, successful mode; funny guy & straight man that croons a song or two and always gets the girl. Abbott and Costello were a duo that I thought represented mainstream, intelligent audiences (for the time). The humor was sometimes complex, their movies filled with song, dance, and even messages, not just potty jokes and slapstick, although both Bud Abbott and Lou Costello had their beginnings in vaudeville and slapstick was part of their routines, but Abbott & Costello were a more thinking man's comedy, as was the comedy of the Marx Brothers. The Marx Brothers, which was a different animal than the comedy duos mentioned before because there were four of them. Actually the Marx Brothers act began with four of them, and then changed to another four…so in reality there were Five Marx Brothers, with older brother Gummo (his stage name) leaving the act and going into real estate. The Marx Brothers were also a very cerebral act; yes you could laugh at the slapstick and the one-liners, but most of the routines were orchestrated with the precision of a Broadway musical. The Three Stooges, on the other hand, were often looked at as a dimmer comedy, an easy comedy, a back alley type of humor that only the lower classes, the uneducated classes could enjoy.
Well, I fit on all categories as that, if that is indeed some people's attitude towards the Stooges, and for those people I claim they are the uneducated masses. I began studying The Three Stooges; the act, their films, and the men themselves, not just Moe, Larry, and Curly but also
Shemp Howard ,
Joe Besser,
Curly Joe DeRita, and
Emil Sitka, all men that could lay claim to being a part of The Three Stooges act. Shemp had been an original member of the trio; with his older brother Moe (born Moses Horowitz) and Larry Fine. After disagreements with their comedy group's manager, Ted Healy, Shemp left the group to pursue a career in films and you can even see him in the famous Abbott & Costello movie
Buck Privates, among others. Moe brought his youngest brother, Jerome, in to fill the third stooge spot, although he had to shave his curly, auburn hair and shave his handlebar mustache before he could be a "stooge". After Curly suffered a stroke, Shemp was brought back in the fold to fulfill their movie contracts, and then after Shemp himself suffered a stroke, the studio pushed (and Moe relented) to have Joe Besser join the Stooges and later Joe DeRita was brought in by Moe to replace Besser, who didn't fit comfortably into the Stooge position. Sitka was almost a Stooge, although he co-starred with the boys in many movies, he was brought in to replace Larry after he passed away, but before the trio could perform, Moe himself had a heart attack and died, forever ending the group, until the Farralley brothers.
The movie was broken down into three segments, each with their own title and each about the approximately length of the standard two-reel comedies the Stooges starred in through the 1930s, 1940s, and into the 1950s. The supporting cast: Jane Lynch as Mother Superior, Brian Doyle-Murray as Monsignor Ratliffe, Jennifer Hudson as Sister Rosemary, Kate Upton as Sister Bernice, and Craig Bierko as Mac and Sofia Vergara as Lydia, the two villains of the story. The story of the three orphaned boys having to go out, naively, into the world to help save the orphanage from being shut down over financial burdens and budgets is old and been done before, but it is the perfect vehicle, too, for the Three Stooges. If any trio of n'er-do-wells can help save an orphanage, it's those three. The slapstick is spot on, with all the eye-pokes, saws cutting ladders, stomach punches, nyuk-nyuks are all in place perfectly. The only down side, for me, as a viewer and lover of Stooge history and Stooge humor was the hospital nursery scene; it was not necessary to have a "water-gun" type battle using babies and their urine streams. The scene seemed like it was filler, and It should have been on the cutting room floor. The Farralley brothers, in my opinion, are known for their gross humor. There were scenes in most of their comedies that could've stayed on the cutting room floor because they were not necessary to the plot, but this is not only not necessary to the plot, it is not consistent with Three Stooges humor. No where in over 220 film appearances have I seen the original boys; Moe, Larry, and Curly, using babies as urinating water guns to shoot each other in the face.
I even enjoyed the storyline involving the cast of The Jersey Shore; Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino , Jennifer "JWoww" Farley, Ronnie Oritz-Magro, Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio, and Samantha Giancola did an amazing job as co-stars of Moe's, when he goes it alone without Curly or Larry and he gets a job on the "reality" show. Normally, I wouldn't give you a Lincoln penny to watch that group of ridiculous individuals, but here they really had no problem poking fun at themselves, their show, and even taking a poke or punch or two in true Stooge fashion, so I must say my hat is off to them, well done.
All in all, if you are from one of those families that never got to watch The Three Stooges because your Mother, or your Aunt, or Grandmother, said it was wrong to watch them, that they were too violent and they were afraid that you would emulate them (they were right, by the way), then perhaps you should go see this movie, just to get some adult-real life Stooge experience. However, if you were raised on the Stooges, if you have had your share of sore eyes from being poked, or battle scars from re-enacting famous scenes from their short films, then maybe you should go see this movie too. If you are a nyuk-nyuk, finger popping against your throat or cheek, barking, crazy lunatic with a thing for physical humor, laughing out loud and having fun (not going to the movies to be educated), then you should be standing in line to see this movie. It's on 92minutes long and has already surpassed it's $30 million budget by $7 million at the box office and it's only a week old.
