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Soitenly! Entertaining!
Apr. 22nd, 2012 08:11 amWe went to see the new Three Stooges movie yesterday. My sister and I were raised on the Stooges (all six of them), so it's always been a little worrisome when a filmmaker decides they want to do something with that material. But it's clear from "Dumb and Dumber" that updating the Stooges has been the Farrelly brothers' lifelong dream, and it seems they might've gotten it right, of anyone, at last.
The Three Stooges were always kid-friendly, operating in an oddly asexual-yet-clearly-straight bubble, with surroundings just racy enough for some adult humor; my worry has always been with a modern retelling that they would not fit into our more cynical world, or that THEY would be changed wince-inducingly to fit it. The Farrellys seem to be similarly inclined, and balanced it out pretty well, with a blend of copied humor from the originals and some of their own jokes (no Dewey, Cheatham & Howe, but new ones like Kickam, Harter & Indagroyne). There was no swearing, no sex (except for implied affairs among Bad Guys, a nun in a racy bathing suit, some short dresses, and a hilarious encounter with Curly and a male nurse), and the Stooges' outside world was modern but cleverly devoid of product placement (except for "Jersey Shore" and social media stuff as needed). A lot of it was set in an orphanage and around the guys helping kids, which seems safe territory.
Lots of cameos without the fourth-wall breakage in-jokes so many contemporary movies seem to employ - it worked well for the Jump Street movie, but would have been embarrassing here. My two favorite appearances were Larry David as an acerbic nun (trust me) and honorary Red Dwarfer Craig Bierko as an inept bad guy. (I like Craig in most any role, though while I believe he could've played the American Lister's attitude well, he ws just too tall and suave to have pulled it off satisfactorily - sorry, other Craig.)
So, yeah; if you like Stooges, you'll like these three guys. They do a bang-up job of imitating the originals almost scarily well.
The Three Stooges were always kid-friendly, operating in an oddly asexual-yet-clearly-straight bubble, with surroundings just racy enough for some adult humor; my worry has always been with a modern retelling that they would not fit into our more cynical world, or that THEY would be changed wince-inducingly to fit it. The Farrellys seem to be similarly inclined, and balanced it out pretty well, with a blend of copied humor from the originals and some of their own jokes (no Dewey, Cheatham & Howe, but new ones like Kickam, Harter & Indagroyne). There was no swearing, no sex (except for implied affairs among Bad Guys, a nun in a racy bathing suit, some short dresses, and a hilarious encounter with Curly and a male nurse), and the Stooges' outside world was modern but cleverly devoid of product placement (except for "Jersey Shore" and social media stuff as needed). A lot of it was set in an orphanage and around the guys helping kids, which seems safe territory.
Lots of cameos without the fourth-wall breakage in-jokes so many contemporary movies seem to employ - it worked well for the Jump Street movie, but would have been embarrassing here. My two favorite appearances were Larry David as an acerbic nun (trust me) and honorary Red Dwarfer Craig Bierko as an inept bad guy. (I like Craig in most any role, though while I believe he could've played the American Lister's attitude well, he ws just too tall and suave to have pulled it off satisfactorily - sorry, other Craig.)
So, yeah; if you like Stooges, you'll like these three guys. They do a bang-up job of imitating the originals almost scarily well.
