Topic: 2012 THREE STOOGES MOVIE REVIEWS

[stooged and confused]

Well, the first one is in and Roger Ebert has it. Had Roger been a fan of the Stooges growing up, he may have enjoyed this more. He mentions that he missed out on them during childhood. But enough of my yakkin', read for yourself:


http://rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120411/REVIEWS/120419999

The Three Stooges (2 1/2 stars)

BY ROGER EBERT / April 11, 2012

   

Cast & Credits
Moe Chris Diamantopoulos
Larry Sean Hayes
Curly Will Sasso
Mother Superior Jane Lynch
Lydia Sofia Vergara
Sister Rosemary Jennifer Hudson
Sister Mary Mengele Larry David

20th Century-Fox presents a film directed by Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly. Written by Mike Cerrone and the Farrellys. Running time: 92 minutes. Rated PG (for slapstick action violence, some rude and suggestive humor including language).

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The Farrelly Brothers have made probably the best Three Stooges movie it's possible to make in 2012, and perhaps ever since the Stooges stopped making them themselves. Much depends on whether that was what you were hoping to hear. Their "The Three Stooges" has the look and feel of a Stooges classic and possibly some of the same gags. So there's that.

Growing up, I missed the whole Three Stooges thing. Either they weren't on the station in my hometown, or we hadn't bought a TV set yet, or they came to town too late for me. I'm pretty sure that at the right age, I would have loved them. No doubt many parents will want to share their formative experience with their children.

For example, at the screening I attended, Mancow Muller was there with his twin daughters, Ava Grace and Isabella Sofia, who are sweethearts. No doubt he was grateful for the public service announcement at the end of the movie by the Farrellys, who demonstrated to the audiences that the hammers and sledgehammers the Stooges hit one another on the head with were rubber props. They also used slow-motion footage to show that no Stooge is really being poked in the eye; you are at the eyebrows.

As much as anything else in the movie, this cautionary lecture evoked the era when the Stooges reigned at kiddie matinees and low-rent TV stations. "Warning — kids!" they were always being told.

"Don't try this yourself!" Solemn stories were told about the kid who shot his eye out with a BB gun, or ate a lot of Kool-Aid and then drank an RC Cola and his stomach exploded. As nearly as I can recall, nobody was hit over the head with a sledgehammer.

The casting of the three leads is just about ideal. Larry, Curly and Moe are played by Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos, who are made to look enough like the originals to justify no complaints. This movie has been in development hell for something like a decade and survived the bankruptcy of MGM.

Perhaps we should be grateful for the delay. Over the years, websites breathlessly reported the casting of such stars as Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Hank Azaria, Johnny Knoxville and Jim Carrey, but it's better this way because it's less distracting. Sean Penn is an excellent actor, but I don't know if I could get into the spirit with him as Larry.

The film is wisely brief, 92 minutes, divided into three segments that are linked together with the Stooges' being raised in an orphanage. They spent not only their childhoods there, but their entire lives until the present day — parents for some reason being reluctant to adopt them. The second and third segments center on the bankruptcy of the orphanage, and the pledge by the Stooges to raise $830,000 almost overnight to keep it open.

The nuns running the orphanage are also well-cast: Jane Lynch as the Mother Superior, Larry David (yes, Larry David) as the autocratic Sister Mary Mengele, and Jennifer Hudson, slender and warm as Sister Rosemary.

As they forage the city in search of funds, the Stooges get involved in a murder plot against a millionaire and Moe finds accidental stardom in the cast of a popular TV program that I will not reveal.

Having said all of these things, I must say one more: I didn't laugh much. I don't think the Stooges are funny, although perhaps I might once have. Some of the sight gags were clever, but meh. The three leads did an admirable job of impersonation. I think this might be pretty much the movie Stooges fans were looking for. I have no idea what their children will think about it. I guess what I'm wondering is, was it really necessary?

[shemps#1]

Here's one from Allison Whitmore of the AV Club (the Onion's "legit" news site):

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-three-stooges,72291/

C-
by Alison Willmore April 12, 2012

    F Community Grade
    Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
    Cast: Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos
    Rated: PG
    Running time: 92 minutes

Like a freshness experiment in how long comedy can keep, the Farrelly brothers’ The Three Stooges places its titular trio, now played by Sean Hayes (Larry), Will Sasso (Curly), and Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe), in the present day pretty much unchanged. They aren’t explained away as time travelers, or characters sucked out of a TV and into real life; they’re just three man-children with odd haircuts and old-fashioned wardrobes, using words like “youse” and engaging in elaborate pratfalls. To make this divide even more evident, the trio is placed in the company of terribly contemporary types like Jane Lynch (playing a nun), Jennifer Hudson (playing another nun), and the cast of Jersey Shore (playing themselves, if you want to call it that).

The Three Stooges isn’t very funny, but it is, like last year’s far superior The Muppets, a sincere act of fandom on an epic scale. The plot, which involves Sofia Vergara as a murderous femme fatale and the saving of the boys’ childhood home, is there only to usher the Stooges through basic locations—orphanage, city street, hospital, fancy party—that serve as backdrops for their bits of action. And even those who have never seen one of the original Three Stooges shorts will know what that entails: heads clunking together, eye-pokes, whoop-oop-oop-oop, and nyuk nyuk nyuk, all with cartoon-style sound effects. (When someone steps on Vergara’s breast for leverage, for instance, it makes a honking noise.)

The faith the Farrellys have in the lasting entertainment value of this specific brand of vaudeville-born physical comedy is touching, if misguided. The Stooges’ work may well be timeless, but that doesn’t mean it can be easily transferred. This will probably be the first Stooges exposure for the film’s intended audience (it’s aimed young enough that there’s a disclaimer at the end in which the “directors,” played by two ex-soap-opera stars, explain the stunts are faked), and it’s hard to imagine they’ll be able to focus on the gags and not the weird, disjointed rest of the movie. While many of those jokes fall flat (a scene involving baby urine goes on for what feels like six to seven hours), they’re still better than the surrounding material, which is shot in an ugly, ineffectual way that looks like it was thrown together in someone’s backyard, down to the makeup visible on the actors’ faces. How did they make Vergara look so awful? Though since she took this role, obviously she wasn’t that concerned.

[shemps#1]

Here we have a former Bond Roger Moore (actually a small time reviewer who shares the name) with what is right now the only "fresh" review out of 4 on Rotten Tomatoes:

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/12/4408310/say-woo-woo-woo-to-the-three-stooges.html


Say 'woo-woo-woo' to 'The Three Stooges'
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By ROGER MOORE
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Published: Thursday, Apr. 12, 2012 - 1:00 am

There's an inner 9-year-old in us all, dying to get out, to laugh at pratfalls, slaps, eye-pokes and fart jokes.

That's what Fox and the Farrelly Brothers are counting on. That's why they've revived "The Three Stooges," those princes of the puerile, champions of the childish and lions of lowbrow.

And from the moment Larry David appears, in full nun's wimple and habit, as Sister Mary-Mengele (hah!), this updating of the Stooges works. (Or should we say "woiks"?)

We meet them the day they're hurled, in a bundle, at the door of an orphanage. They grow into troublesome orphans with bad haircuts. Even as 10-year-olds, Moe (Skyler Gisondo), Larry (Lance Chantiles-Wertz) and Curly (Robert Capron of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid") just say "Nyuck" and are accidents waiting to happen.

"No wonder (adoptive) parents didn't want youse," Sister Mary-Mengele hisses. But Mother Superior (Jane Lynch) and Sister Rosemary (Jennifer Hudson) tolerate them. For decades.

So that when, 35 years after arriving there, their orphanage faces foreclosure, the sort-of adult Larry (Sean Hayes), Curly (Will Sasso) and Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos) are there to save the day.

Sort of.

But it's going to be impossible to raise $830,000 through ineptly performed odd jobs, even if Moe is "startin' to get half a brain in my head." Fortunately, they run into a femme fatale (Sofia Vergara, at her Vergara-iest) who wants them to smother her "dying" husband.

"Soitainly!"

Little does she know she's hired mayhem in high-water pants for the job.

"Those three eeeeeeediiots!"

Little does anyone know these three are in over their heads in the modern world.

"Are you guys on Facebook? I'll poke you!"

Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.

The Farrellys, who have fallen off raunchy comedy's cutting edge in recent years, manage the right tone. Sound effects amp up the laughs (an accidental poke in Vergara's D-cup may be the raciest thing in it) and they've scored with their casting. This originally was supposed to have Oscar-winning stars, but thankfully, Sean Penn is nowhere to be found.

The new Stooges are affectionate homages to the originals: Moe and Curly Howard and Larry Fine. Hayes (of TV's "Will & Grace") is the most mannered, and the only one you see giving a performance. Not that he isn't funny as all get-out. But Sasso and Diamantopoulos ARE Curly and Moe.

The Farrellys cleaned up their act for a kiddie audience. They even appear on camera for a "don't do this at home" disclaimer at the end, because, as ever, the Stooges are for kids.

Not that plenty of grownups won't get a kick out of what Moe does to "The Jersey Shore." Because they have it coming.

THE THREE STOOGES

3 stars

Cast: Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, Larry David, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Hudson, Kate Upton

Directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly, written by Bobby and Peter Farrelly and Mike Cerrone

Running time: 1:32

MPAA rating: PG for slapstick action violence, some rude and suggestive humor including language

2012, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

BTW S&C: I copied and pasted the Ebert review in your post because there should be a bunch of these and it will make it easier to read them on one page instead of constantly clicking links. Any member reviews should be posted to this thread as well.

[shemps#1]

Here's one from MLB prospect Josh Bell (not sure if it's the Orioles' Josh Bell or the Pirates Josh Bell) who gives us probably the most scathing review thus far.

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/apr/11/film-review-three-stooges/


Film Review: The Three Stooges (1.5/5 stars)

Veteran comedy filmmakers Peter and Bobby Farrelly (Dumb & Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) have been talking about making a movie based on The Three Stooges for more than a decade, but as long-in-the-works dream projects go, it’s pretty anticlimactic. Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso play Moe, Larry and Curly, the three moronic friends whose favorite activities include poking each other in the eyes and hitting each other on the head, which they do many, many times over the course of the 90-minute movie. The Farrellys try to mimic the structure of the original Stooges adventures by dividing the movie up into three “episodes,” but it’s really a single drawn-out story about the Stooges trying to save the orphanage where they grew up. Diamantopoulos, Hayes and Sasso deliver impressions rather than performances, and the movie itself is just a repetitive, unsuccessful impression that neither honors the Stooges’ legacy nor provides any justification for bringing them into the present day.

[shemps#1]

'The Three Stooges' review: Silly, harmless laughs--unless you're some kinda wise guy, ay?

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'The Three Stooges'

'The Three Stooges' (April 9, 2012)
Yet one more: this one counted as "fresh" on RT from a Matt Pais of Chicago website RedEye.

Matt Pais RedEye movie critic

April 12, 2012

**1/2 (out of four)

My dad has loved the well-intentioned, dimwitted antics of Moe, Larry and Curly since he was a kid. He came with me to “The Three Stooges” and enjoyed it. That’s an endorsement from a true fan.

For those without built-in affection for the comedy goofballs from the 1930s-’50s, Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s (“There’s Something About Mary”) rejuvenation of the characters registers as both better than it looks and worse than it needed to be. Adapting an old-fashioned style to the modern day could have yielded better contemporary humor than mere mentions of Facebook and Geico and the iPhone. That’s not comedy writing; that’s product placement.

Following a plotline conceived about the same time the Stooges were, Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos of “24,” great), Larry (Sean Hayes of “Will and Grace”) and Curly (Will Sasso of “Mad TV”) try to raise enough money to save the orphanage where they grew up—and remained until the age of 35. As nuns at the orphanage, Larry David, Jennifer Hudson, Jane Lynch and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover model Kate Upton win a long-shot bet for the one person who wagered they’d appear together onscreen.

Faithful to a franchise that relied on ripping out hair and poking eyes for laughs, “The Three Stooges” serves as innocent fun when it’s steering slapstick violence somewhere playful rather than uncomfortable. (Sofia Vergara plays a woman who hires the guys to kill her husband, a plotline that isn’t as lighthearted as the Farrellys seem to think.) Incorporating a popular reality show and its cast into the movie counts as a slap in the face to longtime fans, but it’s just a temporary distraction from funny bits like the pals trying to sell farm-raised salmon … that they water while the fish lie on a golf course.

At one point, Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro were cast as the Three Stooges. That might have been an inspired, weird take on beloved characters. The “Three Stooges” movie that actually happened aims largely to impersonate, most successfully when simply offering more of the same.

Watch Matt on “You & Me This Morning,” Friday at 7:30 a.m. on WCIU, the U

mpais@tribune.com. @mattpais

[shemps#1]

One more from Mark Savlov of the Austin Chronicle:

The Three Stooges: The Movie
Rated PG, 92 min. Directed by Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly. Starring Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Hudson, Larry David, Kirby Heyborne, Brain Doyle Murray.
REVIEWED By Marc Savlov, Fri., April 13, 2012

When I was a young boy, my father and I would wake up every Saturday morning to watch three hours of the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and the Little Rascals on our cranky old Zenith television. Still a good five years before the arrival of cable TV, our set was a three-channel wonder replete with tin-foil-covered rabbit ears and even tinnier sound. Reception was iffy depending on the weather, but for me, Saturday mornings were magic, a Cocoa Puffs-flavored whirlwind of pratfalls and eye pokes and piano disasters with my pop.

I'm glad to have those memories now that I'm older, but it pains me to have to say that this Farrelly brothers reboot of the comically violent, childlike Stooges – Moe (Diamantopoulos), Larry (Hayes), and Curly (Sasso) – is a work of near-existential pointlessness. It's true to the anarchic, silly spirit of the original clowning, but there's very little else to it (even the threadbare plot is cribbed from The Blues Brothers. It's painful to watch, and not in the boink!; "My eye, you nitwit!" kind of way. Reportedly, various versions of the script have been floating around for ages, and although I rarely go so far as to say a film simply shouldn't have been given the green light, that's exactly the case here.

All three leads are adequate, but the simple act of attempting to re-create the madcap aura of the original Stooges’ brotherly sadomasochism is doomed from the get-go. Larry David raises a few chuckles as a bitter nun, Sister Mary-Mengele (!), but that's not even a Stooge-derived gag. The entire production, from its bizarre, episodic structure to the jaw-dropping, WTF?! postscript in which the Farrelly brothers take to the screen to warn young audience members not to attempt to put each other's eyes out (thus pre-empting Jackass-style lawsuits, one assumes), is as depressing as the Stooges’ real-life stories. And that, frankly, would have made for a far better – and grimly hilarious – movie.

(0.5/5 stars)

[shemps#1]

...And another, from Soren Anderson of the Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2017960282_mr13stooges.html?syndication=rss

Originally published Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 12:03 AM
Movie review
'The Three Stooges': Farrellys' take deserves a poke in the eye

A movie review of "The Three Stooges," an unfunny take by the Farrelly Brothers starring little-known actors Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso as Moe, Larry and Curly, respectively.

By Soren Andersen

Special to The Seattle Times
Movie review 0.5 stars (out of 5)

'The Three Stooges,' with Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Jane Lynch. Directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly, from a screenplay by the Farrellys and Mike Cerrone. 92 minutes. Rated PG for slapstick action violence, some rude and suggestive humor including language. Several theaters.

Reading the Interwebs, one is reminded that once upon a time (it was 2009) Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro were being pursued by the brothers Farrelly to play the Three Stooges. For various reasons, Penn (who was in line for the Larry role), Carrey (Curly) and Del Toro (Moe) all apparently thought the better of it.

Smart fellows.

But Bobby and Peter Farrelly wouldn't let the notion, which they'd nurtured for more than a decade, go.

Dumb decision.

They persisted, and now the product of their persistence is out there for all to see. With — drum roll, please — Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso.

Hah? Who?

High-wattage stars these are not. To their credit, they bear a reasonably close resemblance to the originals: Diamantopoulos, with his bowl haircut and surly attitude as Moe; Hayes, made up with Larry's balding pate and fright-wig side-extensions; and Sasso, with flood pants exposing white socks — all madly whoop, whoop, whooping across the screen.

But they're mere imitations. There's nothing beneath the surface similarities and programmed franticness. Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Jerome "Curly" Howard, the best-known combination of the Stooges' various amalgamations, somehow made their schtick seem fresh and vital. The antics of this new trio seem stale and lifeless.

We've seen it all before. Who wants to see it again? Beyond the Farrellys, that is? Once, these guys were funny. But they peaked with "There's Something About Mary." And that was in 1998. It's been downhill for them ever since. ("Shallow Hal," anyone?)

Their "Stooges" starts with the lads as babes hurled in a bag from a speeding car onto the doorstep of an orphanage. A nun, played by Larry David (don't ask), opens the bag and earns a poke in the eye.

Endless pokes, bops, klonks and clouts later, they're groan — sorry, grown — men trying desperately in their dimwitted way to raise $830,000 to save the orphanage from closure. In the process, they're lured into a lame plot to bump off the dweeby husband of a sultry vixen. Later still, Moe winds up on "Jersey Shore," mercilessly whapping and slapping the show's beefy lunks and jabbing Snooki in the eyes.

Are we laughing yet? No? Well, take a gander at this scene where the boys use infants in a nursery as, ah, pee projectors, giving one another urine facials.

Thus is a classic act updated for the 21st century. With body fluids galore.

The "Stooges" screening I attended was one of the most peculiar I've ever sat through. Up on the screen: high-decibel cacophony. Out in the audience, save for a rare, strangled chuckle: silence. The silence of the tomb.

Soren Andersen: asoren7575@yahoo.com

[shemps#1]

A positive review from the Tampa Bay Times:

http://www.tampabay.com/features/movies/review-lots-of-nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-with-the-three-stooges/1224660

Review: Lots of nyuk-nyuk-nyuk with 'The Three Stooges'

By Steve Persall, Times Movie Critic
In Print: Friday, April 13, 2012
   
[20th Century Fox]

Entertainment

Don't be a numbskull and write off Peter and Bobby Farrelly's remake of The Three Stooges before seeing it. This is a more than reasonable facsimile of the comedy act that launched 1,000 emergency room visits. Who'd a thunk that a hammer to the noggin could hurt, when it looked so funny?

The silly mugs have changed but the doinks, plinks and kettle drum sound effects of slapstick abuse remain the same. The Farrellys affectionately structure their movie to resemble the Stooges' one-reelers from the 1930s, while the modern setting shows how timeless their rapid-fire puns, insults and pratfalls truly are. Silliness never goes out of style.

Impersonating these comedic icons — and, really, who hasn't among friends? — is a scary proposition for any actor. The trio who drew the short straws here won't erase memories of Moe Howard, his brother Curly, and Larry Fine but do a fine job of channeling their brand of impudent ignorance. Only the most stubborn Stooge purists will complain.

We've seen Will Sasso's Curly before, on Mad TV, so it isn't surprising that his woo-woo-woos and nyuk-nyuk-nyuks are spot-on. Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) solidly capture Larry's receded hairline, dim squint and nasal wisecracks. And watch how Chris Diamantopoulos makes Moe more than a bulldog jaw under a bowl haircut. Their choreographed slap fests and handshakes are nearly equal to the originals.

The Three Stooges is divided into three episodes, each opening with a throwback title card and Three Blind Mice on the soundtrack. Part 1 is More Orphan Than Not, tracing the Stooges' childhood in a foster home run by nuns. Yes, Larry had that hairline at age 10, Moe was just as bossy, and Curly just as dumb, played by child actors who'll never live it down.

Part 2 is The Bananas Split, following the now kind of adult Stooges' quest to raise a fortune to save the orphanage. They're hired by a femme fatale (Sofia Vergara) to kill her husband, so she can run off with his best friend. Naturally the plan fails, and a rift among the Stooges sends Moe packing, hired as the latest roommate on Jersey Shore. Yes, Snooki and the Situation show up but watching Moe go Stooges on them is one of the more gratifying movie sequences this year.

The plots dovetail in Part 3, No Moe Mister Nice Guy, when the Farrellys drift into cruder humor than Stooges might attempt. Vergara's bosom gets a sound gag, a dolphin's distress and a lion's privates are punchlines, and flatulence saves the day. Add that to an earlier scene of the Stooges using urinating babies as Super Soakers, to realize that the dirty stuff isn't funny in this context. Stooge humor is purer of heart, despite the bruises.

Stick around for the epilogue when the Farrellys (rather, hunks posing as them) deliver a public service announcement that hammers used by the Stooges are made of rubber, and eyebrows are poked, not eyes. They don't want to hear from any law firms depicted in the movie, especially Kickham, Harter and Inthagroyne.

Steve Persall can be reached at persall@tampabay.com or (727) 8893-8365.


.review

The Three Stooges

Directors: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly

Cast: Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Larry David, Jennifer Hudson, Stephen Collins, Craig Bierko, the cast of Jersey Shore

Rating: PG; slapstick violence, rude humor

Running time: 92 min.

Grade: B

[falsealarms]

[shemps#1]

Here come a few more reviews, this one from the AP:

Review: 'Three Stooges' one long poke in the eye
By Christy Lemire
AP Movie Critic / April 12, 2012

A little nyuk-nyuk-nyuk goes a long way in "The Three Stooges," Peter and Bobby Farrelly's feature-length homage to the classic slapstick comedy trio.

The Farrelly brothers have wanted to make this movie for years, and for the most part they didn't try to inflict their signature gross-out sensibility upon known and revered source material. Yes, there is a scene in which Moe, Larry and Curly get into a urine fight by pointing naked newborns at each other in a maternity ward. And Curly does pass some major gas, but it's actually relevant from a plot perspective.

As directors and writers (with screenplay help from their boyhood friend Mike Cerrone), the Farrellys have shown surprising restraint. Their "Three Stooges" is sweeter than you might expect, and it's certainly more tolerable than their last movie, the crass "Hall Pass" from last year.

But it's hard to imagine who the film is for today beyond hardcore fans of the original shorts and 10-year-old boys who double over giggling at the sight of grown men doubling over in pain. Despite its brisk pace and brief running time and even with its episodic structure -- the film is broken up into three individual episodes with a through line that unites them -- "The Three Stooges" grows very old, very quickly.

There are a few cute ideas, though, and some clever casting choices. Every once in a while a pun is good for a chuckle. But the head-bonking and the eye-poking, the face-slapping and the finger-snapping and the constant clang of sound effects are too much to bear over an extended period of time. If anything, the Farrellys' "Three Stooges" might make you want to go back and revisit the original threesome -- in short doses -- for a reminder of how influential their brand of comedy has become.

These adventures take place in the present day, though, as Larry ("Will & Grace" star Sean Hayes in a wild wig), Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos of "24" and "The Kennedys") and Curly (Will Sasso of "MADtv") are still living at the orphanage where they were dumped as infants, despite the fact that they're now grown men in their mid-30s. That is one amusing gag: As time passes, different actors play the threesome at various ages, but the nuns who raised them stay exactly the same. And these three actors are doing nearly dead-on impressions of Larry Fine and Moe and Curly Howard, rather than going in a knowing, post-modern direction with the characters.

Jane Lynch, in a departure from her famous snark, plays the kindly Mother Superior; Larry David is a sight to behold as her sidekick, the cranky Sister Mary-Mengele (she's essentially Larry David in a nun's habit). One day they inform the Stooges and the other orphans that their home will be shut down if they can't come up with $830,000 in the next month.

And so our intrepid (and naive) trio ventures out into the big, wide world, a place they've never seen before, to try and raise the money. Fish-out-of-water antics, some hurt feelings and massive bodily injuries ensue. (The Farrellys did this better back in 1996 with Randy Quaid as an innocent, Amish bowling prodigy who goes on a cross-country tour in "Kingpin.")

They get mixed up with a femme fatale (Sofia Vergara) who hires them to kill her rich husband so that she can run away with her lover; naturally, this does not go nearly as planned. (On a side note: It would be nice to see Vergara play a character besides a saucy temptress once in a while.)

Attempts at contemporizing the Stooges are hit-and-miss -- the reality show they stumble onto is just cringe-inducingly awkward -- but they're "soitenly" never mean. And that's sayin' somethin'.

"The Three Stooges," a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG for slapstick action violence and some rude and suggestive humor including language. Running time: 91 minutes. Two stars out of four.

[shemps#1]

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter, who apparently thinks the Faux Stooges are better than the real ones.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/three-stooges-film-review-farrelly-brothers-311106

Stars Chris Diamantopoulos, Will Sasso and Sean Hayes are on the money as Moe, Curly and Larry in a film containing more plot and sentiment than the boys' shorts ever had.

The boinks, pokes, slaps, nyuk-nyuks and nyaaahhhs mostly sound right and hit their marks in The Three Stooges, the Farrelly Brothers' funny, good-hearted resuscitation of Hollywood's beloved lowbrow lunkheads. Gestating for so long it nearly qualifies as a dream project finally come to fruition, this boisterous and affectionate comedy has more plot and sentiment than the boys' shorts ever had in their '30s-'40s heyday, but the winning cast and sympathetic spirit almost immediately strip away any skepticism long-term hardcore fans might carry in with them. While older aficionados and young kids should be on board with this PG-rated Fox release, the main commercial question mark perhaps centers upon 30ish viewers with a Stooge gap, too young to have grown up on syndicated TV broadcasts but too old to have had their childhoods enhanced by the DVD repackagings.
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PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes of 'The Three Stooges'

Casting was always the big issue with this long-simmering venture. For years, Peter and Bobby Farrelly were courting big names to play the boys, including the likes of Russell Crowe, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Paul Giamatti. After a while, it seemed as though this was a film that was never meant to be. The happy ending, however, is that the less-known Chris Diamantopoulos, Will Sasso and Sean Hayes are entirely on the money as Moe, Curly and Larry, respectively, nailing the voices, carrying off the essential familiar moves with aplomb and, in Hayes' case, even bringing a little something extra to the least-defined Stooge.

Although the original team always wanted to make feature-length films (but never did until very late in the game and never with Curly), Columbia boss Harry Cohn probably rightly judged that their one-dimensional brand of physical comedy would play best in a short format. The Farrellys cleverly address this issue by dividing their 92-minute farce into three related episodes, the first of which presents the threesome as young boys anxious to be adopted from the rural Sisters of Mercy Orphanage, where they were dropped as tykes in a burlap bag.

The Mother Superior (Jane Lynch) and her associate with the immortal name of Sister Mary-Mengele (Larry David in drag) spend decades trying to unload the inseparable trio, who do menial work around the grounds that allows the actors to begin strutting their comic stuff with the same sorts of props — hammers, mallets, saws, ladders, wood beams, bicycles, fire hydrants, a church bell and so on — with which the originals wreaked such havoc (the prominently displayed founding date for the orphanage, 1934, marks the year the Stooges began their tenure at Columbia).

VIDEO: The Three Stooges' Trailer

With the institution deeply in debt, Episode #2, entitled “The Bananas Split,” sees the boys unleashed upon the big city (Atlanta, in point of fact), where they have resolved to come up with the $830,000 required to save the orphanage from ruin. On the promise of ample reward, they become embroiled in a murder scheme perpetrated by illicit lovers (Sofia Vergara, who gets a boob thoughtlessly stepped upon at one point with sonic accentuation, and Craig Bierko) against the woman's wealthy husband (Kirby Heyborne), the fallout from which quickly leads to a hospital, which provides a setting bulging with comic possibilities.

For at least the 25 years since Three Men and a Baby, the gag of babies peeing up into the faces of adults trying to change their diapers has been desperately unwelcome. However, the sight of the Stooges brandishing a nursery full of straight-shooting bambini like so many squirt guns gives the joke a new lease on life. Men encased in body casts are shown no mercy, nor is a man who gets fresh with Curly when he's disguised as a nurse.

A massive slap-fest, designed, it would seem, to incorporate nearly every classic move in the Stooge playbook directly leads to the film's strangest interlude, which has Moe enlisted to join the cast of Jersey Shore. The mop head's interactions with Snooki, The Situation and the rest of them are more weird than actually funny — Moe and the reality-show denizens don't seem to occupy the same universe or century — though it is not unamusing to see him administering well-placed pokes and jabs to the TV layabouts. The nuttiness climaxes at a lavish upscale party that just begs to have its balloon punctured by the Stooges posing as hired help.

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In an era of defined by extreme R-rated Hangover humor and Jackass-style physical punishment, The Three Stooges is mild indeed. Still, there were many parents who, in the old days, wouldn't allow their kids to watch Moe, Curly and Larry for fear that their tots would start hammering away at one another or take pliers to their friends' teeth. Even now, some of the gags are still alarming enough to have prompted the Farrellys to add a clever postscript revealing how their “weapons” are made of rubber and admonishing young'uns not to imitate what they've just seen.

Given the indelible figures cut by real-life brothers Moe and Jerry (Curly) Howard and Larry Fine, it's a real tribute to Diamantopoulos, Sasso and Hayes how quickly one is willing to accept, then embrace the actors as these iconic characters. Physical resemblance, enabled by extensive makeup, wigs and costumes, is the easy part. But vocally they're also spot-on, and Sasso is able to execute all of Curly's famous moves, including spinning on the ground, with graceful precision. They may not be the real things, but if the matches were any closer, you'd suspect resurrection or cloning.

Production: Conundrum Entertainment, Charles B. Wessler Entertainment

Cast: Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Hudson, Craig Bierko, Stephen Collins, Larry David, Kirby Heyborne, Carly Craig, Kate Upton, Marianne Leone, Brian Doyle-Murray

Directors: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly

Screenwriters: Mike Cerrone, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Producers: Bradley Thomas, Charles B. Wessler, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Executive producers: Earl M. Benjamin, Robert N. Benjamin, Marc S. Fischer

Director of photography: Matthew F. Leonetti

Production designer: Arlan Jay Vetter

Costume designer: Denise Wingate

Editor: Sam Seig

Music: John Debney

PG rating, 92 minutes

    Sean Hayes
    Bobby Farrelly
    Peter Farrelly
    The Three Stooges
    20th Century Fox Film

[shemps#1]

Bill Goodykoontz (some name) of the Arizona Republic

http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/movies/articles/2012/04/12/20120412three-stooges-movie-review-goodykoontz.html

At their best, the Three Stooges were demented geniuses, savants of slapstick, bringing a sense of joy to smacking faces and pulling noses.

'The Three Stooges'

Bad: 2 stars

Directors: Bobby and Peter Farrelly.

Cast: Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopolous, Will Sasso.

Rating: PG for slapstick violence, and rude and suggestive humor, including language.

Hey, don't knock it. There's a place for that sort of thing. But the film "The Three Stooges" couldn't find it with a GPS unit. Although the Farrelly brothers have updated the Stooges, dragging them kicking and screaming and eye gouging into the present -- and hiring Larry David as a nun! -- the movie is content to simply mimic the old Stooges, bringing nothing new to the table.

That's not entirely true, actually. The Farrellys manage to work into the story MTV's "Jersey Shore" and its characters, who make the Stooges look like Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates. But I'm not sure that really counts as a welcome innovation.
• Goody: 'Three Stooges:' Comics, clowns, freedom fighters
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The film is told in three episodes, which counts for clever here. We first meet Moe, Larry and Curly as babies dropped off on the doorstep of an orphanage run by nuns, including Mother Superior (Jane Lynch), Sister Rosemary (Jennifer Hudson) and Sister Mary-Mengele (David). The kids immediately prove themselves to be violent, incorrigible and stupid, traits they will not outgrow as they get older.

Moe almost gets adopted, but the adoption falls through in a way that will resonate later. So, by the time they are grown up, Moe (Chris Diamantopoulous), Larry (Sean Hayes) and Curly (Will Sasso) are still living at the orphanage, wreaking havoc. Then one day, Monsignor Ratliffe (Brian Doyle-Murray) shows up and announces that, unless someone comes up with more than $800,000, the place will close by the end of the month. So the Stooges decide to set out into the world to try to come up with the money.

This is the part where you would say, "Hilarity ensues," but it doesn't. Instead, the trio get involved in a ludicrous murder plot cooked up by a woman named Lydia (Sofia Vergara) that will somehow lead back to the main plot; astounding coincidence is a common device in the movie. Which can be fine if it's used to good comedic effect. Here, it just seems lazy. By the time Moe joins the cast of "Jersey Shore," you're likely to have long since given up caring.

There are some funny individual bits -- Kardashian jokes never disappoint, no matter how obvious -- and a few of the sight gags work. It's a fun cast, but, with the exception of David, whose casting seems inspired in this context, only Sasso seems to be having a good time; perhaps that's a function of the Curly character. Hayes seems flat-out miserable, playing Larry as if he suffers from a constant stomachache, which isn't exactly the trait you want in a Stooge.

In the end, you wonder what the point of the whole enterprise is. It has taken years for a Stooges movie to get to the big screen. You'd think that after all that time, maybe the Farrellys, who have made funny movies ("There's Something About Mary," "Kingpin"), would have come up with something better. Instead, you wish they'd spent a little more time to try to get it right.

[shemps#1]

Peter Debruge from Variety:

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117947380?refcatid=31

Leave it to a sibling comedy duo to recognize the potential for brotherly love amid the Three Stooges' slap-happy antics, adding a welcome heartwarming dynamic to the gang's signature eye-poking, head-knocking routine. In Fox's "The Three Stooges," co-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly tone down the abuse without compromising the numbskulls' unique style of physical comedy, making for an unexpectedly pleasant yet unapologetically lowbrow outing true to the spirit that has made the trio such an enduring comedy fixture since its bigscreen debut in 1930. Brand recognition and warm word of mouth should win over wary parents for a midrange success.

Considering the blowback any time a surrogate stepped in to fill one of the original Stooges' shoes (remember Shemp?), it couldn't have been easy to find three actors capable of matching the highly imitable but seldom matched mannerisms of Moe, Larry and Curly. Audiences already know longtime "Will & Grace" co-star Sean Hayes, whom a scowling expression and equally unflattering wig transforms into permanently befuddled Larry, and versatile "Mad TV" comic Will Sasso, whose closely shaved head becomes an all-purpose battering ram as Curly. The discovery here is Greek-Canadian Chris Diamantopoulos, who nails the fast-talking Moe's cheeky New York accent (no small feat, considering that English is the thesp's second language).

As if to simulate a latenight marathon of "Three Stooges" shorts, the film is divided into three continuous episodes. The first, dubbed "More Orphan Than Not," serves as a revisionist origin story for the trio, opening with their arrival, via duffel bag, on the front stoop of an orphanage operated by nuns. The sisters range in appearance and disposition from the beatific Sister Bernice (Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton) to the draconian Sister Mary-Mengele (Larry David in drag), with Jennifer Hudson thrown in for good measure as the quick-to-sing Sister Rosemary.

After a few "Little Rascals"-style scenes in which pint-sized moppets play the 10-year-old misfits, their ridiculous hairstyles and personalities already very much in place, the story jumps forward to find the now-adult Stooges still living under the nuns' roof. But fortunes have changed in 35 years, and the orphanage is now saddled with heavy debts. Unless the three can raise $830,000 in a month's time, they'll be forced to fend for themselves, though escalating in-fighting suggests a rift among the brothers (the subject of the last two episodes, "The Bananas Split" and "No Moe Mister Nice Guy").

Wherever they go, the Stooges can be relied upon to turn any environment -- including a maternity ward packed with full-bladdered infants -- into a dangerous playground for slapstick shenanigans. While the story may be stock and the laughs unsophisticated, it's hard not to admire the convoluted mix of puns and mock pugilism that make up their routine, a throwback to the vaudeville tradition from which their act emerged back in the '20s.

As with the Marx Brothers, the key to making the Stooges work is to surround them with straight men -- humorless authority figures incapable of going about their business in the presence of such idiocy. As Mother Superior, Jane Lynch is a perfect example, denying her own considerable comic gifts to give the boys more room to shine. The instant the supporting cast starts to act funny, however, the dynamic shifts toward farce, as when a buxom gold-digger (Sofia Vergara) enlists the Stooges to murder her husband (Kirby Heyborne).

While best known for pushing the envelope on gross-out humor, co-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly are softies at heart, having quietly spent the past two decades shifting audience attitudes toward mentally and physically challenged characters onscreen (including actors with disabilities in "There's Something About Mary" and "Shallow Hal," among others).

Whereas many who grew up watching "The Three Stooges" now wince at the thought of their mean-spirited antics, the Farrellys have the right attitude to make their buffoonery bearable. In early scenes among the nuns, the adolescent Stooges come across as precocious pranksters, but as adults, they are clearly stunted kids -- a variation on the popular man-child trend.

And lest anyone think "The Three Stooges" reruns represent the lowest form of television programming, the Farrellys slyly enlist the cast members of "The Jersey Shore" to play themselves, allowing Moe to knock some sense into the reality-show wastrels. If some degree of schadenfreude is key to appreciating the Stooges' abusive escapades, then watching Snooki and the Situation get slapped around goes a long way toward satisfying grownups, while sparing the need for racy double entendres and other tacky tricks.

Production values are pro, with timing -- in choreography, editing and silly sound effects -- consistently triggering the guffaws. An amusing coda, in which Antonio Sabato Jr. and Justin Lopez introduce themselves as the film's directors and proceed to deliver a "don't try this at home" message, puts the PG-rated violence in proper context.

[shemps#1]

Tim Grierson. Screen Daily

http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/the-three-stooges/5040312.article?blocktitle=The-Latest&contentID=592


Proudly, gleefully stupid, The Three Stooges finds directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly in fine lowbrow form. Powered by the manic physical comedy of the iconic titular trio, this movie favours quantity over quality in the joke department, but the proceedings’ infectious good cheer – anchored by skilful performances from Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos as those rascally stooges – can’t help but win you over. The Three Stooges may not be witty or subtle, but it’s pretty darn funny.

    The trio have been given a lot of funny material to mine.

Opening April 13, this Fox release will lean heavily on audiences’ familiarity with the classic vaudeville act and their slapstick shenanigans. None of the actors playing the stooges are household names, so arguably the film’s biggest marquee draw are the Farrelly brothers themselves, although admittedly their last sizable hit was 2001’s Shallow Hal, which brought in $141m worldwide. Aimed at family audiences but no doubt hoping to attract older crowds as well, The Three Stooges is a bit of a roll of the dice commercially, and so robust word-of-mouth will be critical.

Abandoned at an orphanage when they were just babies, Larry (Hayes), Curly (Sasso) and Moe (Diamantopoulos) have grown up to be sheltered, squabbling, moronic adults. But when the orphanage has to raise $830,000 in 30 days in order to stay open, the trio decide to go out into the scary world to find the money. Unfortunately, their need for fast cash puts them in the crosshairs of a vengeful gold digger named Lydia (Sofia Vergara), who hires them to perform what they believe is a mercy killing of her ailing husband – only to learn that the man is perfectly fit and merely an impediment to her plans for his fortune.

Burdened with a convoluted story that gets in the way of the humour, The Three Stooges is at its best when it sticks to the spirit of the original shorts, which were all about their madcap mayhem. To be fair, the stooges’ shtick is an acquired taste – bad puns intermixed with ultra-repetitive, sometimes viscously violent physical comedy – and the Farrelly brothers don’t entirely conquer the problem of how to turn a limited comic repertoire into a feature-length film. But as they’ve demonstrated in comedies like There’s Something About Mary and Dumb And Dumber, The Three Stooges has a winning innocence and sweetness that makes these buffoons oddly lovable, no matter how much they smack each other around.

Going with lesser-known actors, the Farrellys may have damaged their film’s potential box office, but their cast prove quite impressive at not just resembling the original stooges but also harnessing their choreographed comic flourishes. Hayes manages to conjure up Larry Fine’s amiable pleasantness, Sasso perfectly embodies Curly Howard’s dopey gentle-giant persona, and Diamantopoulos clearly grasps Moe Howard’s slow-fuse surliness. While it would be a stretch to say that these new actors are the spitting image of their predecessors, there’s a freewheeling confidence and camaraderie in their performances that doesn’t rely entirely on mimicry to be effective.

Of course, it also helps that the trio have been given a lot of funny material to mine. Working with co-writer Mike Cerrone, the Farrellys’ script features several opportunities for extended comedy sequences, often involving characters falling down, hitting their head or barrelling into other characters – all accompanied by the wonderfully cartoonish sound effects of the old Stooges shorts. To complain about these moments’ sophomoric humour would be to miss the point, though. Much like the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker spoofs of the 1980s and ‘90s – or, to go further back, the Marx Brothers comedies of the 1920s and ‘30s – The Three Stooges coasts on its dopey, groan-worthy jokes, transforming lowbrow gags into a rude, defiant badge of honour in the face of intellectual pretension.

With that said, The Three Stooges can be maddeningly uneven, with inspired bits of business butting up against lame satire of reality television. Because its story is so pedestrian, the film surges and sags on the strength of its latest laugh, which can make for an occasionally exhausting viewing experience as the Farrellys and their stars try to keep this balloon afloat. Still, they’re ably assisted by a game supporting cast who have dialled into the movie’s sillier-than-silly tone. Particularly strong are Larry David, who seems to be having a ball playing a crotchety nun, and Sofia Vergara, who combines sex appeal and comic smarts as the movie’s boo-hiss villain.

Production companies: Conundrum Entertainment, Charles B. Wessler Entertainment, C3 Entertainment

Domestic distribution: Twentieth Century Fox, www.foxmovies.com

Producers: Bradley Thomas, Charles B. Wessler, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Executive producers: Earl M. Benjamin, Robert N. Benjamin, Marc S. Fischer

Screenplay: Mike Cerrone & Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly

Cinematography: Matthew F. Leonetti

Production design: Arlan Jay Vetter

Editor: Sam Seig

Music: John Debney

Website: www.threestooges.com

Main cast: Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Hudson, Craig Bierko, Larry David

[shemps#1]

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies

(2.5/5 stars)
Three Stooges': Poke in the Eye of the Beholder
Glenn Kenny, Special to MSN Movies

To call "The Three Stooges," the contemporary reboot of the "classic" comedy trio, a hit-and-miss affair is both to indulge in the kind of wordplay that should earn one a poke in the eye, and to be a little too generous. The no-longer-quite-kingpins of crude cinematic humor (with sometimes quasi-subversive smarts), Peter and Bobby Farrelly, have been trying to bring this pet project of reincarnating the nasty post-vaudevillians Moe, Larry and Curly to the screen for, it seems, almost as long as they've been making movies. At various stages of development such stellar and, in some cases, seemingly brilliantly counterintuitive talents as Mel Gibson, Jim Carrey, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn had been floated to not portray but newly embody the schticksters. The biggest name of the trio that's actually making it into multiplexes is Sean Hayes, late of "Will and Grace." He plays Larry, and he's in a way the most convincing Stooge here. While both Chris Diamantopoulos as bowl-cut sadist Moe and Will Sasso as gonzo moron-in-a-china-shop Curly are both physically dexterous, comically deft and exceptionally game, neither of them conveys the cramped, seedy nastiness that was a vital part of the originals' ... well, can we call it charm?

Search: More on the Three Stooges

And this, I should say, is where the rub might be located: You're either a Stooges person or you're not, and if you're not, you have no reason to care about this picture. I myself have at least somewhat fond memories of my days as a Stooges person, which period fell in my late teens and early 20s. I was already a fan of the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Woody Allen and such. Cultivating Stooges fandom from that foundation was a way of embracing one's own inner anarchic stupid person, and also the Stooges stuff played pretty well after ingesting certain inebriants that were common collegiate fodder in the late '70s. I don't revisit Stooges stuff much these days, but I'd never be so snooty as to brag that I grew out of them. So that's where I'm coming from with this picture.

Obviously, the Farrellys are still Stooges people, else they wouldn't have bothered to make this movie. The affection they have for the still-not-reputable team is evident in the way they recreate their most famous bits of physical and verbal humor. They extend the cheeky tastelessness in some genuinely irresponsible ways: One of the nuns at the orphanage where Moe, Larry, and Curly are deposited as weirdly tonsured babies is actually named Sister Mary Mengele. (Larry David plays the nun in a broad drag performance that constitutes a fan's testament of its own.)

They break up the 90 minutes of this feature so that each third of the film constitutes its own quasi-short, for short subjects were where the Stooges did their best, or, for those of you still reading who are not Stooges people, most historically notable work. They smartly bring in the very capable Sofia Vergara and Jane Lynch, among others, to play Stooge female foils. They also blatantly lift from the plots of both "The Blues Brothers" and "Beavis and Butthead Do America" (the story has the Stooges trying to raise money to save their beloved orphanage, and running afoul of a contract-killing scheme in the dumb process), neither of which is an entirely inapposite comic model, so that's OK.

For all that, absent the weird post-modern kicks that might have ensued had better-known performers populated the top spots, this movie lives and dies with its jokes. I laughed embarrassingly out loud at some of the baby-Stooge stuff in the beginning. I clammed up a bit at the boy Stooges. I gritted my teeth at a drawn-out hospital routine involving multiple micturating infants. I laughed embarrassingly out loud again at a gag in which a pair of clothes irons are mistaken for defibrillator electrodes and placed on a hapless individuals chest. The bit ending with Curly exclaiming "No, but her face rings a bell" had me in stitches. The plot twist in which Moe lands a role in an actually extant television reality show and interacts with its actual cast should be funny. But one is distracted by the fact of seeing those schmucks from (SPOILER ALERT) "Jersey Shore" making still more money. And the young reprobates are such lame performers that you just sit there wondering how long they needed to produce a usable take rather than laughing at/with them.

The more successful stuff is hard to quantify because, as was often the case in the shorts, the best gags are the ones that fly by quickest. But by the time the picture ended, my feeling was that while a good part of the picture reached my submerged Stooges person and made him laugh, too much of it just didn't connect at all. Maybe not being under the influence of collegiate inebriants dulled the comic effect, but I'm not going to put that theory to any kind of test. Your mileage may vary as they say, but being a Stooges person would seem to be a prerequisite for your bothering to go see it in the first place.

Glenn Kenny is chief film critic for MSN Movies. He was the chief film critic for Premiere magazine from 1998 to 2007. He contributes to various publications and websites, and blogs at http://somecamerunning.typepad.com. He lives in Brooklyn.

[shemps#1]

Richard Corliss, TIME

http://entertainment.time.com/2012/04/12/the-three-stooges-when-slapstick-meets-sentiment/

Movies
The Three Stooges: When Slapstick Meets Sentiment
The comedy trio of Hollywood's Golden Age might have been coarse, brutal and mildly sociopathic, but those Stooges were worlds smarter than these wan ones
By Richard Corliss | April 12, 2012 | +
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Everett Collection
Everett Collection
The Three Stooges

Year: 2012

Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Actors: Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos, Will Sasso

In 1954, the sociologist Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, his argument that horror comic books were corrupting America’s youth. Widely read by troubled parents — and by their kids, because of the lurid panels of disfigurement and dismemberment Wertham used to illustrate his thesis — the book served as a form of literary McCarthyism that defiled the robust artistry of a significant form of mid-century popular culture. (Translation: I was a kid then, I loved those comics, and I somehow survived them.)

A more suitable case for study in the 1950s would have been the seismic influence of The Three Stooges on the juvenile delinquency that flourished at the time. It cannot have been mere chance that the airing of the Stooges’ old short films on local TV stations coincided with a rise in sadist-destructive impulses among young males: underage crime, flagrant disrespect for adults and the poking of classmates’ eyes accompanied by the teen-terrorist mantra, “Nyuk nyuk.” Exposure at an impressionable age to the face-slapping, hair-pulling antics of the prime Stooge trio — Moe Howard, his brother Curly (Jerome) and their partner Larry Fine — surely sowed seeds for a generation that, a few years later, tried to reap anarchy in America. (Translation: I didn’t think the Stooges shorts were funny; and what doesn’t make me laugh makes me angry.)

(READ: The Glory and Horror of EC Comics)

Hyperbole aside, it’s no exaggeration to say that some of the boys weaned on the Stooges grew up to make roundhouse movies that put a premium on pain as a tool of comedy. What are Animal House, Porky’s, American Pie and half of the Judd Apatow canon if not repositories to the infantile male hostilities on display in the Cinema of Stooge? Now, in the nakedest homage yet, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the Rhode Island siblings who used to own a near-monopoly on rude movie humor (Dumb & Dumber, There’s Something About Mary), have perpetrated a feature-length tribute to the short-film trio and called it, with ardor overwhelming ingenuity, The Three Stooges.

In their day, Moe, Larry and Curly (joined by Moe and Curly’s brother Shemp in 1946 after Curly suffered a stroke) were among the least celebrated of comedy teams. Critics loved the Marx Brothers, tolerated the Ritz Brothers and ignored or scorned the Stooges. In 1937 a critic in the Motion Picture Herald divided movie audiences into two groups: “one composed of persons who laugh at The Three Stooges and the other made up of those who wonder why.” Even Leonard Maltin, the B-movie historian and trash-comedy enthusiast, opens his Stooges chapter in the book Movie Comedy Teams with the mildest of encomiums: he pegs the trio as “talented, experienced comedians who deserve recognition, if only for longevity.”

(MORE: Rare Behind-the-Scenes Photos of The Three Stooges)

Give them credit for sticking around. Like the most reliable workers at the Pink Slime factory, these veteran vaudevillians ground out about eight two-reelers a year at Columbia Pictures for a quarter century, from 1934 to 1958, and didn’t graduate to feature-film stardom until Columbia closed its short-films department. In their productivity, rigid format and emphasis on violent comedy, the Stooge shorts might be compared to the Warner Bros. cartoons of the same period — except that animation directors Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones often turned mayhem into masterpieces, while the Stooges’ psychopathy steered clear of ambition and artistry.

(READ: Corliss’s tribute to Chuck Jones and the Warner Bros, cartoons)

Almost always, the plots plopped Moe (with the bowl haircut and shortest fuse), Larry (a dim bulb sporting Einstein’s frantic coiffure) and Curly (a smart physical comedian with a buzz cut) into some bastion of propriety to raise wholly hell. Some of their better early films have them invading an art class in Pop Goes the Easel, a society party in Ants in the Pantry, where they drop rodents down the dresses of the debs, and a hospital in their one Oscar-nominated short, Men in Black. (These can be found on the DVD The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 1, 1934-1936.)

Occasionally the set pieces are as sharp as the Stooges are dumb, thanks to the rough craftsmanship of directors Del Lord and Charley Chase and writers Felix Adler and Clyde Bruckman — a famous gagman for three decades, and co-director of Buster Keaton’s immortal silent comedy The General. (After writing his final Stooges short in 1955, Bruckman borrowed a pistol from Keaton and blew his brains out.)

(READ: Corliss’s tribute to Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle)

Rarely interrupted by the musical numbers that gave audience a gentle pause amid the chaos of Marx Brothers movies, the Stooges shorts raced from one indignity to another — often visited on stuffed shirts, more frequently on themselves. Nor did the films bother with romantic subplots, a must in feature-length comedies of the time. Stooges pictures had no heart; they only had time for the pain. And the punishment was quickly inflicted, instantly forgotten, immediately repeated. When Moe would gouge Curly’s eyes, or Larry answer a slap with a harder smack, nobody ran for shelter or skulked away. The Stooges were the movies’ form of commedia dell-arte puppets, with no feelings to hurt.

You have noticed that my recent viewing of a few dozen Stooges shorts has slightly mellowed my old antagonism — just in time to see the Farrellys’ feature as an unworthy tribute. Written a decade ago, the project was originally envisioned for an all-star cast: Benicio Del Toro (or Hank Azaria or Johnny Knoxville) as Moe, Sean Penn (or Andy Samberg) as Larry and Jim Carrey as Curly. That plan never bloomed, and the brothers wound up with Sean Hayes (flamboyantly gay Jack on Will & Grace) in the Larry role and the much-lesser-known Chris Diamantopoulos (Frank Sinatra on the miniseries The Kennedys) as Moe and Will Sasso (who looks like a jollier James Gandolfini and impersonated him in Sopranos spoofs on MAD TV) as Curly. The movie’s audience should be divided between those who would like to have seen the Del Toro-Penn-Carrey version and those who wonder why the Farrellys bothered to make this one.

(READ: A Brief History of Slapstick Humor)

Set mostly in the present day, and photographed in blinding color instead of the crisp black-and-white of the shorts, The Three Stooges is broken into three “episodes” of about 27 minute each. (An actual Stooges film ran 15 to 20 minutes.) It begins a quarter century ago at the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage — “founded 1934″ — run by a chipper Mother Superior (Jane Lynch), with the strict Sister Mary-Mengele (Larry David, of Curb Your Enthusiasm, in immaculate drag) as Prefect of Discipline. Young Curly (Robert Capron), Larry (Lance Chantiles-Wertz) and Moe (Skyler Gisondo) already suffer from criminal-comic dementia. But when Moe is improbably adopted, he refuses to join his new family unless the other two can come along, which gets him a return ticket to the orphanage. Flash-forward to the present day, as the orphanage faces closing due to $830,000 in unpaid medical bills incurred by the trio. The grown-up but still arrested-development Stooges resolve to leave home, raise the money and save the Sisters.

Already, we’re deep into the sort of sappy sentiment the original Stooges would have butt-kicked off the screen. Theirs was a ruthless Cinema of Cruelty; this is whimsy with a coating of corrosion. Stumbling into the scheme of a sexy predatress (Sofia Vergara) who is using her boyfriend (Craig Bierko) to kill off her rich husband (Kirby Heyborne), the Stooges are goofs with soft spots, and not just in their heads. In the Christian sense, they’re fools for Christ: virtually every bit of violence they cause is for the greater good of bailing out the nuns and their adorable charges.

(LIST: All-TIME 100 Movies)

A couple of decent set pieces — one inflicting severe vehicular pain on the boyfriend, other using hot irons as defibrillators on a cop’s chest — are the most distant approximations of gags from early Stooge shorts. Guest shots from the famous (Dreamgirls’ Jennifer Hudson as a singing nun), the infamous (the cast of Jersey Shore) and the libidinous (Sports Illustrated swimsuit icon Kate Upton as a nun who finally gets out of the habit) can’t save the movie from its deficiency in star quality. Indeed, the purpose of the entire enterprise seems to demonstrate the superiority of slapstick sadism from 75 years ago to the wan attempts at PG-rated roughhouse today.

Can somebody please fund a study on the debilitating effects of the worst modern comedies on the collective sense of humor of today’s youth? I’d guess that the Farrellys and their comedy kin are committing a true seduction of the innocent. (Translation: The original trio was worlds funnier than this, or these, Three Stooges.)

[shemps#1]

Joe Neumaier, NY Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/farrelly-brothers-stooges-update-stupidly-entertaining-article-1.1060593?localLinksEnabled=false

(3/5 Stars)

Hey, what’s the big idea with “The Three Stooges”? This wackily anachronistic movie from the Farrelly brothers (“Dumb & Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary”) takes the beloved — by male comedy fans of a certain age, anyway — comedy trio whose heyday was the 1930s and ’40s and reimagines them as the same eye-poking, belly-bopping, hijinks-creating goofs plopped in today’s world.

And just as in their once immensely popular short films, today’s world also has orphans in need of saving, angry nuns and ladders that break apart. It’s a concept that shouldn’t work at all. But — who’da thunk it? — it’s better than a hammer to the head.

That’s mostly due to some inspired casting, which thankfully does not include big names like Sean Penn and Jim Carrey, two stars who expressed interest when directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly first announced this project over a decade ago.

Will Sasso (“MadTV”) is a spot-on Curly and Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”) is a dead ringer for Larry. Seriously, folks, these two are uncanny. If Chris Diamantopoulos isn’t quite as short and scowly as Moe, at least he has the voice and hair right.

Abandoned as kids, the Stooges here grow up in an orphanage, tormenting the croaky Sister Mary-Mengele (a Borscht Belt-funny Larry David in penguin nun garb), the saintly Sister Rosemary (Jennifer Hudson) and the patient Mother Superior (Jane Lynch). Years later, the orphans — including one tomboy who’s dyin’ from an unstated 1930s-style movie sickness — will be thrown out on their ears due to no cash. So Moe, Larry and Curly leave to see who’ll pony up to save the kids.

They stumble into a moider! plot involving a sexpot (Sofia Vergara) and her boyfriend (Craig Bierko), but the movie — divided into three segments, with Stooge-specific titles like “More Orphan Than Not” — is about getting bonked on the head by rubber hammers and introducing a new generation to classic lines like “nyuck-nyuck-nyuck” and “woo-woo-woo-wooo!”

The Farrellys and their co-writer, Mike Cerrone, are happy as clams just throwing all the classic Stooge bits into a stew and seeing what cooks. (They never add Shemp for extra flavor.) There are no bio-pic elements, as in the “Stooges” TV movie from 2000 or the Andy Kaufman vivisection “Man on the Moon.” There’s just some great imitations of what remains an acquired taste.

All of which could make this movie, as the man with the bowl haircut once said, the smartest imbecile you’ve ever seen.

[shemps#1]

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-0411-three-stooges-20120412,0,632377.column

Both sincerely affectionate and a tad eerie, the Farrelly brothers'"The Three Stooges"wonders what it'd be like to arm the most violent comedians of the 20th century with their familiar implements of comic torture against a modern-day setting, where sadistic slapstick has become as common as an unfunny "Hangover" sequel.

This retro exercise has been a long time coming. For a while the Farrellys — best known for "There's Something About Mary" and "Dumb and Dumber" — attracted the interest of various A-listers, including Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro.

The trio they ended up with lacks star wattage, but it's very solid. Will Sasso's Curly hews closely to the Curly we know in the nyuk and woo-woo-woo-woo-woo! department. Chris Diamantopoulos has a leaner face than Moe Howard's, but he gets the boiling-point grimace down pat. (The bowl cut doesn't hurt.) Top-billed Sean Hayes, from TV's "Will & Grace," scores an improbable triumph as Larry, his adenoidally weary vocal inflections right on the money.

   So that's a start. But absurdly brutal slapstick is a tough thing to sustain across a feature. I spent a lot of "The Three Stooges" staring, not laughing. For me this was a stare-out-loud affair.

The script by the Farrellys and Mike Cerrone tosses the infant Stooges at the doorstep of an orphanage, where Jane Lynch plays the kindly Mother Superior and Larry David, in wimple drag, plays the mean nun just waiting to get clocked and bonked and banged around. The orphanage is threatened with foreclosure; to raise the $830,000, the boys bravely venture out into the real, adult world, for the first time.

"What is that gadget?" one of the Stooges asks. "It's an iPhone," comes the answer, and in one of the better jokes, Curly sticks his eye up to it and bellows "Hello? Hello?!?"

Aptly, "The Three Stooges" tells its story in three parts, as separate short films adding up to a feature. Less aptly, the pathos involving a mortally ill child at the orphanage and the Stooges' underlying love for one another can get pretty brutal. The sentimentality often feels at odds with the protracted, unevenly executed set pieces relying on wrench-conks and hot irons to the chest.

Also, the anachronisms chafe. While it certainly (or soitenly) fills time to have Moe become a cast member of "Jersey Shore" and yank the nose hairs out of one cast member while giving Snooki the eye-poke, it's kind of: Huh? Wha? Even with its drab and generic visual quality, the film has its moments — there's a genuinely funny visual joke involving farm-raised salmon, for example — but to really dig the Farrellys' tribute to the Stooges, you have to be more of a fan of the old stuff than I am.

Remember "Brain Donors" from 1992? It was an attempt, valiant but limited, to recapture the magic and the dynamic of the Marx Brothers, with John Turturro more or less "doing" Groucho. "The Three Stooges" amounts to the same sort of cover-band project.

mjphillips@tribune.com

'The Three Stooges' -- 2 stars

MPAA rating: PG (for slapstick action violence, some rude and suggestive humor including language)

Running time: 1:32

Opens: Friday

[shemps#1]

Manohla Dargis, NY Times

http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/movies/the-three-stooges-from-peter-and-bobby-farrelly.html?smid=tw-nytimesmovies&seid=auto

Every straight man has a stooge — Abbott had Costello, Crosby had Hope — the foil, the fool, the flunky, the goat. But for much of their career, after splitting from a famous straight man, the Three Stooges had only one another to kick and slap around. Beginning in the 1930s these immortal three ran amok for decades in some 200 short films, busting guts and raking in cash. Now, with stupidity a proud national pastime on the boob tube and off, the moment is ripe for a nyuk-nyuk revival, starting with “The Three Stooges: The Movie,” Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s thoroughly enjoyable paean to Moe, Larry and Curly and the art of the eye poke.

Set in the present, the movie is a fictionalized origin story about three sort-of-lovable fools who could be known as Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest, as Peter Farrelly originally pitched the movie. It’s a perfect fit for the Farrellys, who have made a career out of idiocy in comedies like “Kingpin” and have recently stumbled with duds like “The Heartbreak Kid.” Written by the Farrellys and Mike Cerrone, “The Three Stooges” imagines a once-upon-an-orphanage time when three babies are tossed out of a speeding car at the feet of a nun whose name, Sister Mary-Mengele (Larry David in a habit and snarl), announces that the filmmakers won’t be soft-pedaling their shtick.

The nun’s name proves something of a bait and switch because Sister Mary-Mengele turns out to be the most gleefully offensive jape in a movie that’s more sweet than sour. That’s par for the course for the Farrellys, whose vulgarity has always been leavened by their sense of decency and too frequently undermined by their sentimentalism. Even so, while “The Three Stooges” has a few aww moments, as might be expected given that it’s partly set in an orphanage, and although the Farrellys go soft on the Stooges’ relationships, the filmmakers never lose sight of the crude comedy that inspired them. The Stooges’ bonds of brotherhood may be strong, but they’re ties forged by a choreographed roundelay of resonant whacks and other instances of extreme discipline and punishment.

The unabashedly creaky story, divided into “episodes,” follows the Stooges from infancy through childhood to nominal adulthood. By the time they’re grown, physically if not in any other way, Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos), Larry (Sean Hayes) and Curly (Will Sasso) are forced to try and save the orphanage from the economy and other calamities. Sent out into the world by the Mother Superior (Jane Lynch) with some cash and no worldly experience, the Stooges land first in an anonymous city and then in a noir intrigue with a femme fatale, Lydia (Sofia Vergara), and her lover, Mac (Craig Bierko). Trouble ensues along with a lion, a bear (oh my), the handsome guy from the Old Spice commercials (Isaiah Mustafa) and, in a sharp, funny stroke, the cast of “Jersey Shore.”

The Farrellys don’t overtly mock the “Shore” personalities; there’s no need for them to work that hard. Like some other reality TV stars (the Bravo housewives come to mind), characters like Snooki have assumed the function of a new kind of stooge. In vaudeville the stooge’s traditional role was to give the comic something to work off of, a straight line or a bit of business. The stooge tripped, acted silly, feigned being foolish. The new stooge does pretty much the same thing, the difference being that reality-television celebrities have turned their lives (or some weird approximation of life) into vaudeville. Of course there’s stupid and there’s stupid, and the real Stooges, like the actors playing them in this movie, were performing dumbness, which pretty much seems the point here.

And the three leads in “The Three Stooges” play dumb very well, particularly Mr. Sasso. He beautifully captures Curly’s facial contortions and vocalizations — woo-woo-woo — and, as important, the delicate physicality, the fluttering fingers and flapping feet. Topped with Moe’s bowl cut, Mr. Diamantopoulos bunches his face into a fist and hits his lines like a speed bag (“whatsthemattawithyou?”), while Mr. Hayes, crowned with Larry’s tragically balding Afro and at times sounding like Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion, seems to have more to do than the original Stooge ever did. As usual the Farrellys give this movie about as much visual style as you’d find in a Stooges two-reeler, but, as with the original films, you may be too busy watching and laughing at Moe, Larry and Curly to care.

At their best the Farrellys’ movies exult in the stupid and the profane as a means of liberation, including from good taste, even if their characters tend to put away their freak flags at the end, often in the interest of a normalizing romance. Much of the pleasure in “The Three Stooges” comes from watching and hearing (the boings and thumps are terrific) grown men smack each other silly in Rube Goldberg-like formations and without suffering so much as a single black eye, enduring psychological damage or, as bad, being forced to change. Like Wile E. Coyote and those inflatable clowns that bounce back after every punch, the Three Stooges take plenty of hits but keep on coming. They are, as the Farrellys understand, testaments to human resilience, one slap and tickle at a time.

“The Three Stooges” is rated PG. (Parental guidance suggested) but unwarranted.

[shemps#1]

Stephen Silver, Technology Tell

http://www.technologytell.com/entertainment/185/movie-review-the-three-stooges/

Movie Review: “The Three Stooges”
by Stephen Silver on April 12, 2012 at 3:00 pm

“The Three Stooges” is a movie more than 15 years in the making, based on material that’s over 80 years old. At any age, it’s really, really terrible.

Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who had been eyeing this as their dream project since before they made “There’s Something About Mary,” the new film attempts to bring the time-tested Stooges slapstick formula to the present day, complete with loads of modern pop culture references. And that’s ultimately the movie’s failure- that intersection is never funny, at any point.

The new movie tells the Stooges’ origin story, as they’re dropped off at an orphanage as kids, and then are still living there decades later despite all being 40 years old.

Sticking the Stooges- all of them Jewish to their very core for the last eight decades- in a Catholic orphanage is just one of many things in this movie that make no damned sense. Meanwhile, casting Larry David as a nun -and naming her “Mother Mengele”-  is just one of many ideas here that are way funnier in theory than in practice. Jane Lynch is in the same boat- a major talent cast as a nun and given absolutely nothing funny to do.

In sending the Stooges off to earn money to save the orphanage, the script blatantly plagiarizes the plot of “The Blues Brothers,” only replacing all the music with asinine plot machinations, including a murder-for-hire plot that isn’t exactly in line with Stooge tradition.

During the film’s long gestation, everyone from Sean Penn to Benecio Del Toro to Hank Azaria to Jim Carrey was attached at one point or another, although the movie ultimately went ahead with the much less star-studded trio of Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos in the title roles. The actors’ performances, though, are just about the only thing in the movie that works. They look and sound remarkably like the original Stooges, and you can tell they’re trying very hard.

Roughly 40 percent of the film is taken up by the traditional Stooges shtick- the three characters repeatedly hitting each other, punctuated with comical sound effects. It’s funny like it’s always been, but a little of it goes a long way. There’s a reason the Stooges always made short films.

But all the slapstick in the world can’t overcome all of the many places the film goes wrong. Its horrible script is stuffed full of feeble jokes about Facebook, iPhones, and reality TV, including an extended “Jersey Shore” cameo that’s painfully unfunny and will date the film instantly. The filmmakers seem to think its inherently hilarious for characters who look and talk like they’re from the 1930s to reference movies and technology of today , as if this were a time travel comedy or something.

I can imagine the hardest of hardcore Stooge fans will love it; the guy on one side of me at the screening repeated every punchline, while the guy on the other mimicked every sound effect. But nobody else will.

[vomit]

Wow.  Thanks for the effort.  Looks to be a mediocre film......like most suspected.  I can't believe how many friends are reminding me to see this thing.  I just can't do it....not at the theatre anyway...

[falsealarms]

Interview with Gary Lassin about the film...

Listen to the interview - http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/04/12/three-stooges-farrelly/player

[shemps#1]

Wow.  Thanks for the effort.  Looks to be a mediocre film......like most suspected.  I can't believe how many friends are reminding me to see this thing.  I just can't do it....not at the theatre anyway...

I am actually giving in and going to the local midnight showing in a couple hours. I'll write a review (and perhaps explain why I went to see it) when I get back home.

[stooged and confused]

Several B graded reviews have popped up on Rotten Tomatoes site and an A- from Entertainment Weekly. While critics will always be divided by the Stooges, just as they have been with the originals, a critic's opinion with these types of comedies hardly matters. What it does at the box office is what counts. How many great reviewed movies do poorly, while junk like Adam Sandler and Kevin James comedies clean up? Will people trek to see it? That remains the ultimate question. The overall consensus in all of the reviews (with rare exception) is that the new cast nails their portrayals of the boys--something we as fans were most concerned about.

[stooged and confused]

From Entertainment Weekly:

When people think of the Three Stooges — the poked eyeballs, smashed noggins, and yanked nostrils; the boink! plonk! and clang! sound effects; the snarling martinet sadism of Moe or the castrato dementia of that giant whirligig baby Curly — they tend to have one of two reactions. Either they view the Stooges with eye-rolling contempt, dismissing them as talentless and unfunny nincompoops. Or they go right back to the afternoon-TV nostalgia of their childhoods, recalling the Stooges as stupidly irresistible clowns, the most daffy and inviting of pain freaks — ones who could make you laugh helplessly.

Then, however, there's that other level of Three Stooges fandom: the major-league mania, the kind that powers the Farrelly Brothers' startlingly fun and ingenious act of nuthouse homage/re-creation, The Three Stooges. For the true critically unhinged Stooges connoisseur (I have, at moments, been guilty of this level of adulation), it isn't enough to say that the Three Stooges put the low in lowbow comedy. For some of us, the Stooges had more than great timing or the ability to beat the hell out of each other in a viciously impervious and nimble style. They had a vision. They were oversize scallywag Munchkins who wove an entire comic universe out of fear, frustration, maniacal resentment, and borderline hysteria. Grouchy angels of dysfunction, they turned slapping, bashing, and humiliating into a weird form of connection. They were brothers united in slapstick torment.

A lot of what makes the Stooges' comedy work, especially in their vintage films of the '30s, is that their finger-in-the-face brutality is so loopy and spontaneous that it's like watching the live-action version of a super-violent Tex Avery cartoon. As directors, Bobby and Peter Farrelly revive those routines with a sensational, meticulous fidelity, but spontaneity is, by nature, a hard thing to re-create. For a while, you almost can't help but experience the movie in a slightly detached way, as an extraordinary carbon copy of a bygone comedy era. At an orphanage, where we first meet the Stooges as little rascals, their ''Hell-o! Hell-o! Hell-o!'' heads-in-the-doorway fanfare seems a little forced, and the casting of Larry David — yes, Larry David — as the ultimate dour, sexless nun, Sister Mary-Mengele, is one of those Farrelly stunts that calls so much attention to itself you're not quite sure if it's funny or just meta-funny.

But once the Stooges grow up and go out into the world, the movie starts to jell in a fluky, original way. The Farrellys have taken the bowl-cut ringleader Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos), the Bozo-haired sad sack Larry (Sean Hayes), and the light-on-his-toes oaf Curly (Will Sasso) and plunked them down in 21st-century America, where a babe (Sofia Vergara) and her boyfriend (Craig Bierko) lure them into a plot to murder the babe's husband (Kirby Heyborne). (They think they're getting $830,000 for the job and plan to use the money to save their old orphanage.) The contemporary setting turns out to work incredibly well, because it lends a fresh, hip vitality to the Stooges' violence. ''I thought I told you to smother him!'' barks Moe at Curly, standing near the man in a hospital bed who they've signed on to kill. ''I am!'' says Curly, holding an onion and a vegetable peeler, ''I'm smothering him in onions!'' ''''Ehhh,'' growls Moe, ''good thinking, Emeril!'' as he takes the peeler and applies it to Curly's skull. ''I'll tweet you,'' says someone to Curly a little later on. ''Oh, tweet us to dinner? Soitenly!'' Bits like that do more than revive the Stooges' idiocy — they give it flava.

And so do the actors. All three of the leads get very close to the Stooges' old looks and personalities, but they do more than impersonate; they inhabit. Sean Hayes, in his monstrously ugly frizz-mop (the subject of many a droll and bewildered putdown), does wonders with Larry's lost-puppy stare and syrupy voice; he makes him a touching, trusting dupe, the kind who will never be fast enough to outthink Moe's open hand. Chris Diamantopoulos captures Moe's '30s back-alley toughness and his super-fast brainiac rhythms, though a part of me wishes that he'd been even more of a scowling pill. If anything, he's a touch softer than the real Moe. But Will Sasso, as the greatest of all the Stooges, the infantile genius Curly, not only looks the part to an eerie degree. He also magically channels Curly's terror, joy, dog-barking displaced aggression, and ''Woo-woo-woo!'' insanity. His rubber face stretches in a millisecond from a cringe of pain to a squint of befuddled disgruntlement, and he uses his big body like a tubby ballet dancer who doesn't so much suspend gravity as ignore it.

How funny is The Three Stooges? I confess that I chuckled in amusement more than I laughed out loud. It's an enchantingly well-done tribute that revives, and even refreshes, our affection for the Stooges, yet at its core it lacks the completely and totally unhinged shock of the new. That's true even when Moe ends up as a reality star on Jersey Shore, a joke that sounds brilliant in theory but that, to me, actually took the movie out of Stooges land. Then again, the one thing I couldn't do in watching The Three Stooges was experience the Stooges' routines in a way that a new generation might. Will this movie, playing to young viewers who don't know the Stooges at all, look off-puttingly old-fashioned or so bizarrely slapstick-intense that it seems as up-to-the-minute in its comedy as anything from Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell? I honestly have no idea. But should they go to see it? Soitenly! A–