Review of The Three Stooges (2012) by Fdt44 — 12 Apr 2012

Playing out more like a tribute than an originally-drawn twist on a classic, 'Stooges' is an imitation piece that fails to offer anything new and germane to modern times; its material, embarrassingly camp and derivative, feels too overly forced and enervating to connect audiences with humor outdated some 80-odd years.

Though the "Big-3" (Hayes, Sasso, and Diamantopoulos) turn in first rate impersonations, carrying out the same aching eye-pokes, excruciating hair pulls, bone-crushing skull slaps, and nasty knuckle sandwiches, not to mention the familiar dissonant squabbling and airy mindlessness, they don't even bother to deviate from just that: impersonations; the characters have no intention to extend themselves beyond a 'Mad-TV'-esque imitation-comedy-skit--offering little else than ephemerally visible-but-not-felt- smiles, followed by long-lasting regret and discontent.

And, adding to the feeling are cheap laughs, underdeveloped cameo appearances from modern "characters" ('Jersey Shore' cast members among them), cheap and flatly-shot scenes, desultorily unapt classic-rock scores, as well as reproachably classless, and dismal attempts to appeal to contemporary audiences--breast and bathroom jokes with references to drug use--all of which disceptively slide past the approbated PG-rating.

Did the fillmmakers fail to realize their forbear was clean? Ultimately, the Farrelly brothers, regardless of their own inspirations, don't create anything inspiring--they create a travesty--and participate in an exercise of fully-fledged defaming.

It's "Soitenly" despicable.