Here is an interesting article from the current New Yorker on the Farrelly brothers’ struggle to make a big-screen, contemporary re-make of the Three Stooges.
Other salient bits:
[ul]
[li]The project has been greenlighted and will start shooting in October.[/li][li]No actors have been cast, though the brothers are pursuing Russell Crowe as Moe.[/li][li]The project has the enthusiastic approval of the Stooges’ estate, though the die-hard fans are understandably less than thrilled.[/li][/ul]
I’m of two minds on the issue. I think recasting the Stooges is essentially impossible, and trying to replicate their particular blend of humor — even an updated approximation of it — is going to be just as hard. The Farrellys have some good one-liners in their script, but there was a lot more to the Stooges’ repartee than comic threats. And yet, even if the movie turns out to be a train wreck, I’m curious to see what a 21st century Stooges movie would look like, and if it has to be done by anybody, I suppose the Farrellys are the ones to do it. (Ang Lee must’ve been busy …) Reading of a proposed scene where Moe reaches down Curly’s pants and tears out a patch of his pubic hair, I had to admit that the idea had a certain Stoogian élan, even if it would’ve made Moses Horowitz blush to his dyed roots.
So what do you all think? Is the idea of a Stooges movie so stupid it’s brilliant? Or is it just stupid?
If it wasn’t the Farrelly’s, I’d say it would be a recipe for disaster. They might have the ability to pull it off, but I doubt it.
The Stooges never went for gross-out humor. It was slapstick. And the violence was essentially unrealistic. If they use a chainsaw and it snaps trying to cut Curley’s head, then that’d be in the spirit. If it draws blood, you’re in Michael O’Donoghue territory, and he was one of the few that could bring it off (and never on film). Monty Python’s fight with the Black Knight worked, but for the same reason the Stooges did: it wasn’t realistic.
Further, everyone insists on realism, which makes a Stooges remake an anachonism. It’d probably rank up there with that Laurel and Hardy remake starring Bronson Pinchot.
I am reminded of the horrible W.C. Fields And Me, starring Rod Steiger trying desperately to imitate Fields’ unique style, timing, and humor. It didn’t work. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t dramatic, and it just plain didn’t work.
I am reminded of the godawful Abbott and Costello telemovie starring Buddy Hackett and Harvey Korman – a film which did much to display the legendary comedians’ horrible home lives and war-torn partnership, but didn’t do either performer justice as far as portraying their style, their humor, their incredible ability to play off each other. It was two guys doin’ a bad Abbott and Costello impression.
I am reminded of the hideous Buster Keaton Story, in which Donald O’Connor does a lousy Buster Keaton impression, and Man Of A Thousand Faces, in which people who look nothing like Lon Chaney or Lon Chaney Jr. pretend – badly – to be them.
Most of these films didn’t even get the facts right, much less pull off reasonable or respectable portrayals of the individuals they meant to portray.
I feel confident that Larry, Moe, Curly, Shemp, and co. fall into that same category. These guys were originals, and they were talented, and they knew their stuff. We shall not see their like again, and putting a bowl-cut wig on Russell Crowe doesn’t make him Moe any more than handing Pauly Shore a skull means Shore could do Hamlet.
Never ceases to amaze me how Hollywood endlessly finds new and different toilets to fling money down…
A couple of years ago, some US movie channel made a ‘behind the laughter’ sort of movies about the Stooges. I saw a promo where the three actors recreated some of their bits.
They did a darn fine job.
What would be the legal repercussions of of me and a few friends recreating the Stooges? They are long-dead of course.
The Stooges deal with an office printer, an internet romance, airline security, time shares.
I think it would work very well, but presume that the families of the Stooges have some sort of legal veto.
I’m with the “bad idea” crowd. Even the Stooges themselves couldn’t replicate their original magic, once they were on their third or fourth Replacement Curly.
It was pretty good, but I admit I was expecting disaster. Whatever the Farrellys come up with will need to be a lot better.
Their descendants are very much alive, and would likely sue the ass off you and your friends. (Provided they’re not currently suing each other, of course.)
Even the Stooges couldn’t do it. After Moe and Larry died, Joe de Rita (“Curly Joe”, who, aside from Joe Besser, was the sole remaining Stooge) tried to put a "New Three Stooges act on the road. It failed.
The TV movie was interesting but flawed. The guy from “The Shield” played Curley, and the Jewish guy from “Sex and the City” played Larry Fine. They looked close to the originals, but you couldn’t help noticing that it wasn’t them.
Though the idea of casting Russell Crowe as Moe reminded me of that South Park Episode where he was going around the world and randomly beating people up.