# I saw the Three Stooges movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154 "2012-04-18T14:19:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/21 "2012-04-23T12:44:35Z")
Just saw it over the weekend with my kids, and we all loved it. Very, very good tribute to the old Stooges shorts, by actors who certainly appeared to be fans, and respected the originals. Larry David was brilliant too. The only sour note for me: The “Don’t try this at home kids!” PSA with the fake Farrelly brothers at the end of the movie. What was the point of that? Do they really think kids are going to smack each other with hammers when they get home? Even my 7 year old said “That was dumb. I could tell they were fake hammers!” > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Did the (relatively) tall Curly affect your suspension of disbelief? Didn’t notice it. I suspect they filmed it with some height balancing tricks with a lot of the gags. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > I say it a couple weeks ago and loved it. I was worried that it wouldn’t work as a full-length movie, but they divided it into three shorts and somehow that made all the difference. How did you manage that? It only came out on the 13th. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/22 "2012-04-23T13:58:09Z")
Saw it last night and have to give kudos to the actors who played the Stooges. Phenomenal, Oscar-worthy impersonations. Also loved a few of the set-pieces that updated classic Stooges bits, such as the fish farm and the scenes in the hospital (“get the paddles!”) and there were several points where I laughed more than I have at a movie for quite some time. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else in the film left me cold. The whole thing seemed remarkably poorly directed, lit and filmed, and seemed, well, a bit lazy. Maybe, for example, not showing any signs of aging by the orphanage staff over 25 years was a deliberate choice intended to echo the slapdash production values of the original shorts, but here it just came off as inept. Anyway, didn’t hate it, but felt they could have done considerably better by the concept. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/23 "2012-04-23T15:25:35Z")
I saw it with my boyfriend and his 8 year old son. BF wasn’t really familiar with the stooges, not having grown up in the US and the boyo had no idea. What fun we had! I had seen many stooge flix as a kid and never particularly got into it but the three leads abosulutely nailed it and Larry David had me laughing out loud.It was just good clean goofy fun that any kid could enjoy.Not sure why Jennifer Hudson was in it, though. Thankfully her part was small. How does she keep ending up in movies? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/24 "2012-04-24T23:57:07Z")
This is the only film I wanted to see on this vacation. I left after 25 minutes. The pacing dragged, the beginning, with the young stooges went on too long. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/25 "2012-04-25T00:55:20Z")
I have never seen the original Stooges. It seems to be an exclusively American success, and didn’t get much distribution internationally. It certainly wasn’t anywhere on TV as I grew up, while _Abbot and Costello_, the _Marx Brothers_, and things like the _Road To_ movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. So I am not expecting this movie to have too much international box office success. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/26 "2012-04-25T12:01:33Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > This is the only film I wanted to see on this vacation. I left after 25 minutes. The pacing dragged, the beginning, with the young stooges went on too long. I agree they spent way too much time on them as kids. Once the adult Stooges showed up, though, is when the laughs started. Maybe they’d already lost you, but there’s a good chance you’d have forgiven the slow start if you’d stuck it out. I did. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/27 "2012-04-27T21:53:39Z")
The bit on the steeple, repairing the bell, had us howling with laughter. I haven’t laughed so much in a lonnng time. We loved it, totally. We thought the actors really nailed the Stooges, although the film crams in more shtick than the Stooges would have done in half a dozen shorts. And we, too, were totally puzzled by the tack-on that showed [spoiler]the hammers were just rubber, etc. Seemed totally unnecessary, but I suspect that the producers’ law firm figured that anytime some kid poked another kid in the eye, the parents would sue the studio for promoting violence. Just like everytime anyone throws a bucket of water on someone, they sue Frank Baum’s estate. 😉 [spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2012, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/28 "2012-04-28T06:57:01Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I have never seen the original Stooges. It seems to be an exclusively American success, and didn’t get much distribution internationally. It certainly wasn’t anywhere on TV as I grew up, while _Abbot and Costello_, the _Marx Brothers_, and things like the _Road To_ movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. > > So I am not expecting this movie to have too much international box office success. You would be incorrect. They were or are still being shown in almost every nation on the planet. > **[The Three Stooges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stooges)** > > The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short-subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical, farce, and slapstick comedy. Six total Stooges appeared over the act's run (with only three working at any given time). The two constants were: > The "third stooge" was played in turn by: > The act began in 1922 as part of a vaudeville comedy act billed as "Ted Healy and His Stooges", consisting ori... > [@](#): > > In foreign languages > > In most other languages, the Three Stooges are known by their English name. However, in Chinese, the trio is known as Sānge Chòu Píjiàng (三個臭皮匠)[38] or Huóbǎo Sānrénzǔ (活寶三人組). Sānge Chòu Píjiàng, literally “Three Smelly Shoemakers”, derives from a saying in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Sāngè chòu píjiàng shèngguò yīgè Zhūgě Liàng (三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮) or “Three smelly shoemakers (are enough to) overcome one Zhuge Liang [a hero of the story]”, i.e. three inferior people can overpower a superior person when they combine their strength. Huóbǎo Sānrénzǔ translates as “Trio of Buffoons”.[39] > > In Japanese they are known as San Baka Taishō (三ばか大将)[40] meaning “Three Idiot Generals” or “Three Baka Generals”. The Japanese term baka (馬鹿, “fool” or “idiot”, lit. “horse deer”) is associated with the Chinese idiom zhǐlù wéimǎ (指鹿為馬; lit. “point at a deer and call it a horse”, in Japanese shika o sashite uma to nasu [鹿を指して馬と為す]) meaning “deliberate misrepresentation for ulterior purposes”. In Spanish they are known as Los tres chiflados[41] or, roughly, “The Three Crackpots”. In French and German usage, the name of the trio is partially translated as Les Trois Stooges and Die drei Stooges respectively. In Thai, the trio is known as 3 สมุนจอมป่วน (3 Samunčhǭmpūan; IPA: [sà mun tɕɔːm pùːan]) or 3 พี่น้องจอมยุ่ง (Phīnǭngčhǭmyung; IPA: [pʰîː nɔ́ːŋ tɕɔːm jûŋ]). In Portuguese, they are known as Os Três Patetas in Brazil, and Os Três Estarolas in Portugal, being “estarola” a direct translation to “stooge”, while “pateta” being more related to “goofy”. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/29 "2012-04-28T11:57:07Z")
I saw it last night. I loved it! My impression was that the production values and simplistic plotting were intentionally copied from the originals. The ridiculous hole-riddled criminal plan (oh look, three idiots, let’s involve them in our capital crime, it’s foolproof!) is exactly the type of thing they did in the shorts. I think this is part of what made it work so well. It’s broad farce. Knowing the originals, it’s what I would want in a tribute. Anything else just wouldn’t work, IMHO. You could have Curly making Curly sounds and Moe hitting and poking everyone and Larry being the victim and losing hair but with a serious carefully crafted plot and it would probably fall flat. The stooges as babies and then children worked for me. Seeing those kids doing the impressions made me laugh for some reason. I think a lot of the laughs were laughs of appreciation of the often spot-on impersonations and recognition of the gags and plots. I thought the corny “Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe” business names worked also, both because of recogniton but also because some of them were genuinely funny. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154/30 "2012-04-29T08:37:16Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > You would be incorrect. They were or are still being shown in almost every nation on the planet. > > [The Three Stooges - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stooges) …you haven’t refuted his point: unless you can show me how often the Three Stooges are shown on air in New Zealand or Australia in the last thirty-fourty years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-the-three-stooges-movie/619154.md?page=1)