Stooge Update

 

Well, here it is: the official first trailer for the Farrelly Brothers' upcoming Three Stooges movie.

As a lifelong Stooges fan, I've been watching the development of this project for quite some time with a mixture of both fascination and horror. I was sure they were going to try and update the Stooges for modern audiences and insert tons of fart, sex and drug jokes into the movie. After seeing the trailer my fears have been somewhat allayed.

I still don't think the world needs a remake of the Three Stooges, but this trailer isn't the worst thing I've ever seen. 

They've certainly got the look and feel of the Stooges down pat. Chris Diamantopoulos is positively eerie as Moe. The voice, the mannerisms, even his facial expressions– it's all absolutely perfect. It's like Moe Howard time-traveled to 2011. Sean Hayes does a pretty darn good Larry as well, which is quite a feat. Lots of people can imitate Moe and Curly, but getting Larry's raspy slur down is a lot tougher. And Will Sasso seems like he was born to play Curly.

That said, I'm still not totally sold on the remake. The trailer made me chuckle a couple of times, but the parts I laughed at were things the original Stooges always did. Eye pokes and hits to the head, that sort of thing. It's not enough to just recreate the Stooges, they need to bring something new to the table. Otherwise, what's the point of a remake?

Then there are the Jersey Shore cameos. They absolutely MUST go. Oh, I get why they're in there. The studio thinks the kids of today won't be interested in a remake of some old comedy team, so they're shoehorning Snooki and the rest of her detestable castmates into the proceedings to draw them in. In reality all this will do is ensure that the film is dated before it even comes out. Five years from now you'll be able to look at this movie and pinpoint the exact day and date that it premiered. 

If the studio is smart they'll release the DVD with a special option that will skip over the Shore cast cameos.

Anyway, I feel a little bit better about the movie after seeing the trailer. I'm upgrading my rating from Outright Disaster to Mild Debacle.