So the Farrelly Brothers decide to honor the comedic legends by putting them in modern times (no), using sexual humor (no) and having them interact with Snooki from "Jersey Shore" (hell no).

This is bad.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFeYUNHt ... r_embedded

Having them in modern times and interacting with Snooki (I still can't fathom this) makes this feel like a desperate attempt to "modernize" the Stooges for today's audience. What's wrong with watching their old shorts? What's next? Is Shirley Temple going to go to high school dressed like Kim Kardashian and carry an I-Pod?

Obvious: no box office money in that. There's a reason that the original stooges worked (and to a degree still work for a segment of today's population) and that is that a little stooges goes a long way. 15 minutes are just about the right amount of time to take in what you need to take in. The original stooges made a few feature lengths but they are, of course, better known for their impressive catalog of shorts.

Putting them in modern times certainly saves a little on the budget and allows for some cheap potshots at today's easy targets. I won't lie, I did chuckle a few times during the preview, but you are right...trying to apply an incarnation of the stooges to today's culture doesn't really seem to honor the legacy. I'm not planning to see this, but positive critical reaction from some of the less stuffy critics out there could change my mind.

The problem for me wasn't so much the modernization, but the fact that the timing and the energy seemed off. The cast were dead ringers for Moe and Curly Howard and Larry Fine, though. Thank God they didn't force movie stars into parts that they were not suited for.

Looks pretty funny, though Snooki's apperance threw me for a loop, somehow I doubt that was in the original script.

I'm noticing a pattern here.

Super 8: retro E.T.

The Artist: retro silent

Hugo: retro Melies....?

And now this. What the fuck is going on? Who's producing these movies, Netflix?

Hard to believe that there was a time, not so long ago, when there were actually Farrelly brothers movies that didn't completely suck.

Kingpin isn't a very good film IMO, I pretty much agree with JB's review on that one.

Agreeing with Vex on that one. Kingpin I found to be pretty lame. I liked Dumb and Dumber when I watched it at 16. But even then I noted that the humor never extended that far beyond the toilet. There's Something About Mary was their hilarious movie, even though it did set the stage for the legtimazation of gross out humor. Me Myself and Irene and Shallow Hal were sporadically funny.

Put me in the "pro-Kingpin" corner. Like most broad comedies, there are some scenes/setups that work, and some scenes/setups that do not. On the whole, Kingpin worked more for me than it did not.

I don't mind having them in modern times so much as it bothers me having them make very specific pop culture references (ie, interacting with Snooki).

However, there is something to be said for the physical comedy seeming cruel and out of place here. I don't know if it's the actors or that the three stooges were in black in white, but the originals seemed more natural and less stagy then what's shown in this preview. I have no idea why this is (the actors, the modern setting, being in color, or some combination of those).

Go figure.
-Jeremy

Addendum:
The type of comedy the three stooges engaged in (broadly speaking) was very common to the era. Shirley Temple did some early shorts that had her doing comedy that would not have seemed out of place in a three stooges piece. Ditto for Laurel and Hardy.

I think what makes this trailer seem really out of place is that the three stooges comedy would not work in a modern "setting". I'm using setting very, very broadly here, as I don't have an issue, strictly speaking, with them doing this stuff in our modern age. By modern setting I mean, the whole nine yard. Interacting with snookin, pop reference, everything.

Simply having them doing this stuff, maybe with an ironic twist much like The Brady Bunch movies, would have worked a lot better. I think it might have been interesting if The Three Stooges had been brought whole sale into our time and getting to watch the reaction of other characters to their antics could really have been interesting. Of course, I can't imagine that anyone would consider anything other then trying to get these three their own seperate padded cells.

Maybe they do try something like that for the movie, but I don't get that vibe from the preview.
-Jeremy

Not a huge Stooges fan... I've watched a couple of shorts and found them amusing, but that's it.

Still, this trailer looks awful. I'm not sure I could stand 90 minutes of three guys slapping each other around incessantly. And who the hell is Snooki? Everyone seems to be making a huge fuss about it...

I agree that the Farrellys are way past their prime, ever since the boring romantic tripe that was Fever Pitch (whoever decided that retard Jimmy Fallon could be a romantic lead should be shot). The Heartbreak Kid and Hall Pass had their moments, but were both forgettable in the end. The latter was not helped by its total asshole of a main character, and the former was trying way too hard for laughs. This one probably won't do the Brothers any favors.

Kingpin was so-so, but did have its moments; I mostly remember Bill Murray's hair progressively going all over the place at the climax, and I chuckle everytime I hear the name Ishmael BORG.

Snooki is known for the reality TV show Jersey Shore, everyone on that show is basically famous for getting drunk, shouting at each other and acting like complete idiots both on and off camera, not surprised you don't know who she is, reality TV stars typically arne't well known overseas. Anyways I can see how some people would be put off by slapstick humor for 90 minutes, I think the film looks OK, but it's not something i'd pay to see in a theater.

As far as The Stooges go, I will say that I've watched a few of their shorts and found them amusing. Some of them are funny. But not roll on the floor hilarious. I was talking with a friend one time and the discussion turned to the Stooges. He was even less enthusiastic offerimg the assesment that he got the jokes yet never found them funny.

I know about Snooki even though I do NOT watch Jersey Shore. My opinion on it, The Real Housewives, Kardashians and all those other reality shows can be summed up thus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtkQGG8vlPA

Was this the same one Benicio Del Toro/Sean Penn/Jim Carrey were attached to? I had always assumed it was going to be some kind of bio-pic/dramedy with those guys attached to the project.

As it stands this looks horrendous (aside from that nun emerging from the pool), slapstick has had its day and it just isn’t funny anymore. I’m still shocked that people at my workplace love to watch things like “Funniest Home Videos”, still think it will flop though.

Not sure if it the Del Toro/Penn/Carrey were to be in the Farrelly movie or not. There was a made-for-TV biopic about 10 years ago that wasn't terrible. Michael Chiklis played Curly.

This seems like cinematic hydro-fracking. While this film will likely find it's way into some people's 'guilty pleasure' category, I believe the source material has been exploited enough by it's originators. They've tried this a few times with some aged-comedy skits or programs and have done little more than pollute.

The only thing in the trailer that didn't make me cringe was the semi-clothed Kate Upton moment. But considering she's getting 14th billing (below Dwight Howard as himself), there's probably not much more of her than appears in the trailer. Which is too bad.

The same thought crossed my mind. In fact, I was expecting to see those actors in the trailer. And, if memory serves, they were attached to act with the Farrelly's directing so it is the same movie.



Dwight Howard is in this movie? Thanks Teddroe, that fact made me laugh

Btw, do you watch hoops? We have a pretty cool NBA thread going here. Join us if you do!

I actually thought that trailer was funny. As a life long Stooges fan I expected the worst.

I'm glad, at least, that it doesn't look like a collection of remade scenes from the shorts.