What the hell is Hollywood ruining now: The Three Stooges movie

[Magus]

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO WATCHETH THE TRAILER

So yeah like I don't freaking know this is either the worst idea of all time or the best idea of all time--no this is an extremely terrible idea.

Like number 1 they just co-opted the plot to The Blues Brothers for this movie. Like John Belushi would be rolling his grave if he weren't busy partying in the afterlife with Jim Morrison over the biggest pile of cocaine and woman anyone ever saw. But I assure you he would be miffed if he were viewing our current plane of existence at this juncture.

Number 2, making them orphans seems to preclude the inclusion of Mama, who was easily one of the funniest characters in the shorts. Like yeah I'm sure at least one of the shorts had them save an orphanage but I don't think they ever were orphans (I've seen hundreds of these shorts but I might have missed one, though). Also there are dozen of the various 20 minute plots that could have just been expanded into an hour and a half, such as that time they were pretending to be plumbers and ruined the shit out of those rich people's house, or that time they were pretending to be exterminators and ruined the shit out of those rich people's house, or that time they were pretending to be musicians and ruined the shit out of those rich people's house--well you get the picture.

Or that time they went looking for gold in the desert. That episode was hilarious.

One thing I do have to give this movie credit for is the actors do indeed do a spot-on impression of the Stooges (well, the guy playing Larry is slightly off, but I was pretty impressed by the Moe and Curly here). But why watch this movie when it would make more sense to watch the dozens and dozens of shorts which are still pretty damn funny? Sure you can't make pop culture references but those are just a short cut to actual jokes. The Stooges never made many pop culture references (at most they wound up fighting in World War II) and got plenty of laughs without them.

Also that opening part was just one dumb Stooges gag too far. If they cut baby Stooges out of it it might make it slightly better.

Finally, why don't the Farrelly brothers focus on getting Dumb and Dumber 2 made? Can't they dig up Jeff Daniels and pay Jim Carrey whatever massive salary he demands and get this thing done? Dumb and Dumber was basically the Three Stooges except there were only two of them and it was an original thing, so why not focus on getting that made?

Anyway, what do you think of the modern Stooges? The only thing that gives me hope is they didn't shy away from the slapstick.

[Yrcrazypa]

I have to admit that I got a few laughs out of the trailer. Who knows, it might not be entirely terrible.

[Marc v4.0]

My Grandfather has DAYS worth of shorts, movies, interviews, guest spots, whatever else you could think of on The Stooges.

I have already seen every single goof and gaff in that trailer, in black and white and funnier from the original guys.

I guess if I hadn't it would be different, but all that really made me want to do was dig out some of my own VHS Stooges shorts and giggle at them.

I still got a few laughs out of it, though.


EDIT: I mean, ruin might actually be completely the wrong word. That actually looked pretty faithful to the old stuff, except with more...bountiful cleavage...than the original stuff had. Many of the shorts that had an attractive female in them had them in the style of outfit that would equate best with "lots of cleavage" for the time period, so that didn't really strike me as off, still sexist, but you get my point.

The original movies themselves had pointless side characters and 1 dimensional 'plots' that only served as a powderkeg for slapstick. Hollywood would have to make a GOOD movie to ruin The Stooges, in all honesty.

[Magus]

I know what you mean, I got about 50 hours worth of Three Stooges marathons on VHS and DVD from over the years.

I guess what I'm really concerned about is the pointlessness of this movie. You could just remaster the shorts on Blu-Ray rather than go to the trouble of digging up Will Sasso to do a spot-on impression of Curly. Although then again giving Will Sasso some work is almost a humanitarian act. Guy ain't had shit since he lost weight and quit Mad TV. Now he's back to playing dumb fat schmucks like was his destiny.

[Nique]

Physical comedy is what it is. Whether you enjoy it or groan at it, this is probably going to be as appropriate an homage as you can expect for the genre.

[Aerozord]

sure the fans of the original will hate it because, well these are the guys that defined the genre.

Upside is if its good then it can introduce a new generation to the stooges

[Magus]

I watched the trailer again the other day and I'm not sure how I feel about it now. It's not as bad looking as it could have been, that's for sure. Like if they just have to make it, this is a pretty good looking attempt. I just wish they weren't making it just because they could have made something new that was still slapsticky and also wouldn't be coopting such a classic team.

We'll see how it goes.

[Nique]

The objective quality this film appears to have in terms of it's relationship to it's source material and existence in a pretty low-brow genre notwithstanding, the initial reaction you seemed to have is totally understandable.

My problem is more that I don't know that 'Stooges' was all that great to begin with so I'm not sure it's even worth bringing back.

[Magus]

Originally Posted by Nique

The objective quality this film appears to have in terms of it's relationship to it's source material and existence in a pretty low-brow genre notwithstanding, the initial reaction you seemed to have is totally understandable.

My problem is more that I don't know that 'Stooges' was all that great to begin with so I'm not sure it's even worth bringing back.

I kind of grew up watching them so a lot of the lines are memorable to me as well as the situations. Nostalgia probably makes them more interesting to a person.