Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Thoughts: The Three Stooges!

On Saturday I went to watch the Three Stooges.  I have been excited about this movie for a while.  The Three Stooges used to be a staple of my young life as they would show up in weekday syndication just after the go-bots and other day time cartoons I would watch.  Needless to say I am well versed since an early age in the Stooges.



I went to the movie with the knowledge that I shouldn't expect too much, but from the trailer I was pretty happy with the actors and and was certain that I would at least come away with some very good laughs!  I was not wrong.  For me the Movie delivered the kinds of laughs you would expect from a movie about people who hit each other with hammers.

The actors were dead on!  Not perfect but very good.Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe took on the role well.  He really embodied the leader of the trio!  He is the one that critics are saying "owned" the role the best, but I have to say that I think Sean Hayes as Larry took that honor.  Larry was always my least favorite, but in this movie he shines as a character!  Sean takes on all of the tropes and runs with it.

Curly was played by Will Sasso in the movie, I have to say that he is the character that I feel is much more an imitation of the character, but I don't believe that is the fault of Sasso.  It seems like the version on the screen was written in a way that encompassed the childhood memories of the the writers.  There were about four tropes that were repeated over and over!  I felt like the character could have had a bit more depth, at least they could have picked up on a few of Curly's other mannerisms.

My biggest complaint is something that I did not see in the credits.  Not all that said I could have missed it BUT I watched pretty closely.  There was no mention of the Howard brothers or the original stooges.  No dedication, no "Based on characters portrayed by."  That is upsetting considering this has been billed as a labor of love for so long!  Just a small complaint but I feel like they could have gotten a mention.

Something that intrigues me about this movie are the reactions of the critics.  I can't imagine anyone expects anything other than what it is.  It suffered the same fate of Mr. Bean Movies, you take a very physical comedy and try to give it a context by building it around a story.  The story IS going to be secondary.  The plot is going to be thin!

There is also a thought that the three stooges as a concept is very much a part of their time, and are not relevant to today's audiences.  This may be true.  we live in a time where crude humor is the funniest and they are from a time when what they were doing was kind of considered crude humor.  So in a way it is a product of its time.  I'm not sure today's audiences want slapstick comedy!  I think it may work better in a TV environment.

The popculture refferences (from modern pop culture) and cameos just kept coming in this movie.  But the biggest one was the cast of Jersey Shore.  At first it seemed like an odd inclusion, but it was something where the execution actually worked!  I was shocked, but it was funny seeing tongues being flat ironed and microwaves being pushed over peoples heads!  I think Moe was doing what a large portion of America wants to do! 

The movie was a fun romp, where you can turn off you r brain for an hour and a half!  If your going for fun go for it, if you ware going for an engaging plot then you should skip it.       

1 comment:

  1. Am let down by the fact that the "originals" did not get there due in the credits this is a very shameful over site i feel.

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