¨Will work for $830,000, no job too small.
We'll pres your shirts. We'll shine your shoes. We'll raid your fridge and
drink your booze.¨
The Three Stooges were the kings of slapstick
comedy during the early 30`s and continued to have success until the 60`s. They
were amongst the greatest comedians in early film history along with Charles
Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, and Buster Keaton who all wrote the book on this
genre of film. The Farrelly brothers were also huge fans of the trio so they
decided to make an original film in homage to the kings of knucklehead
comedies. Fans of the Stooges might be impressed, I on the other hand didn`t
find the film all that hilarious. I laughed at very few scenes, although I did
admire some of the wit. The problem is that I was familiar with most of the
gags and I find it hard to laugh at a same joke twice. I wasn`t really a fan of
the original Three Stooges, but I still admired their work. If anything works
in this film it`s the addition of the Jersey Shore cast to remind us how
terrible television has gotten, and how far away we are from the early years where
truly talented actors dominated the screen. Nowadays, with reality television
no particular talent is needed and Jersey Shore is proof of that. Seeing the
Three Stooges interact with the reality cast was a reminder of this. The cast
was pretty good, although none of the actors are real film stars: Sean Hayes is
known for his work in Will and Grace, Will Sasso for MadTV, Jane Lynch for
Glee, Larry David for Seinfeld, and Sofia Vergara for Modern Family. They were
funny and reminded us that some TV series actually do work and we don`t have to
fall for all those reality television stars.
Larry (Sean Hayes), Curly (Will Sasso), and Moe
(Chris Diamantopoulos) grow up in an Orphanage run by Mother Superior (Jane
Lynch). At first the nuns were excited about the arrival of the triplet babies,
but when the film moves ten years forward none of them want anything to do with
the kids. They mean trouble and no one can handle them, especially Sister
Mary-Mengele (Larry David) who wants to call it quits. They design a plan to
get the boys adopted, but no one ever chooses them. The movie then jumps 25
years forward where we see the Stooges as grown men still living in the
Orphanage working in Maintenance. Mother Superior, Sister Mary-Mengele, and
Sister Rosemary (Jennifer Hudson) are still there as well and ironically haven’t
aged one bit. Things change for the Stooges when Monsignor Ratliffe (Brian
Doyle-Murray) arrives to deliver the bad news: There is no money to finance the
orphanage any more, if they don’t come up with 830,000 thousand dollars in a
month they will lose it. That is when the three stooges go on a mission to
raise the money and save the place. For the first time in their lives, Larry,
Curly, and Moe set their foot in society and have no clue as to how to raise
the money, but their lives change when they meet Lydia (Sofia Vergara) who
offers them the money if they kill her husband. All sort of misunderstandings
take place as the three stooges try to find a way to save their beloved
orphanage.
The Farrelly brothers’ comedy, There is
Something About Mary, changed modern comedies in the 90`s. It was one of my
favorite comedies at the time and many comedies have been shaped by it ever
since. Unfortunately, the Farrelly brothers haven’t been able to match the
success of that film and have been on a downhill slope since then. The Three
Stooges had some hilarious moments, but unfortunately the great jokes were too
spread out apart and mixed with some terrible scenes that didn’t work and
killed the momentum (for instance the baby diaper changing scene). It was
unfortunate because the cast was pretty good. The three actors who played the
stooges had the physical appearance of the original ones and really gave funny
performances. The problem I have with these slapstick comedies is that once
you`ve seen one hilarious movie about the Stooges then you`ve seen them all.
There is nothing new to add to the premise which always includes a lot of
eye-popping, slapping, smacking each other over the head with a hammer, and so
on. If you see it for the first time the gag is hilarious, but watching the
same act over and over again gets old. The Three Stooges wasn’t terrible, but
it wasn’t a memorable comedy either. I wouldn’t recommend it, unless you are a
die hard Three Stooges fan.
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