2012 Review #24: The Three Stooges

The Three Stooges
 Rated PG
1 Hour 32 Minutes

Starring 
Sean Hayes
Will Sasso
Chris Diamontopoulos

Story
 While trying to save their childhood orphanage, Moe, Larry, and Curly inadvertently stumble into a murder plot and wind up starring in a reality TV show.

Rotten Tomatoes Score
 46%(While nowhere near as painful as it could have been, The Three Stooges fails to add fresh laughs to the Stooges' inestimable cinematic legacy.)

My Grade 
C-

This may shock a few people...but this is literally the first time I've ever seen anything related to "The Three Stooges". So if you are looking for a Stooges history lesson in this review, you might want to look elsewhere. I am completely ignorant to their past. So my review of the film is completely biased as this is the first exposure to them I've ever had. It wasn't exactly a good first meeting either I'm ashamed to say.

I'm not here to knock the Three Stooges as America knows and loves them. From what I hear, these updated Stooges are fairly accurate and do some decent justice to the stooges of years past, but I guess you had to be there to get it. I just did not get the humor here. I can totally see how kids would go crazy over a movie like this though. Three grown men who act like buffoons who poke each other in the eyes, knock each other over the head with sledgehammers, fall off roofs, etc without inflicting any hint of injury. All the while funny little sound effects accompany all these hi jinks. Again, kids will find this to be a riot and older adults will find this to be a great moment of nostalgia.

But I just didn't get it. I only laughed a few times, because there were a few crazy moments that were pretty fun to watch, which is why it got a C- from me. But these funny moments were far and few between for me. I could only take so much of the same slapstick humor over and over again. To me, it got boring and tiring. The jokes that didn't include the antics of the stooges were just not funny. Basically anything involving the nuns who never aged, and the nun played by a man. Or the whole storyline involving the "Jersey Shore" idiots. I just found most of it to be so bland and just plain dumb.

This kind of humor just isn't all that relevant anymore. Kid films have greatly evolved into the crap we have on Nick and Disney Channels. Kids will still chuckle at the insanity of this trio, but it's not their cup of tea these days. It's definitely not mine. I will probably be hated on for dissing the movie. Just keep in mind, I'm not putting the Stooges down, I'm putting down this attempt at reviving them. I don't have much to really say about this movie. It was just so generic and almost unfunny. I liked the guys who played the stooges, I though Will Sasso was great and Sean Hayes was pretty good too! I liked the small roles from people like Jane Lynch and Sophia Vergara...but I don't know, this movie was just blah.