Release date: April 13, 2012
Directed by: Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Written by: Mike Cerrone & Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly
Cast: Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jane Lynch, Sofía Vergara, Jennifer Hudson, Craig Bierko, Larry David
Rating: PG
Running Time: 92 minutes
The road to the theatrical release of the Farrelly Brothers’ The Three Stooges is about as tortured as Larry’s hair. Since 1997, the filmmaking Farrellys went through more studios, and more potential Stooge actors, than you could shake a stick at. (Why anyone would want to shake a stick at a Stooge, knowing full well the physical mayhem that that might incur, is beyond me. Nyaah-aah-aah-aah-aah.) While such names as James Marsden, Johnny Knoxville and Hank Azaria were discussed, it was the casting of Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro that was thought to be set in stone.
In 1976, Mel Brooks almost took on the project. In 2000, Michael Chiklis portrayed Curly in a TV movie with another Mel (last name of Gibson) as one of the executive producers. Speaking of which, supposedly the Farrellys considered casting Gibson. And Russell Crowe. Wow. Visualizing a misplaced eye boink between those two poster boys for anger mismanagement instills more fright than laughs.
Star power and a twenty-five year history aside … wait, hold on there, fella. Can we even come close to putting star power and a 1934-1959 history aside? Particularly when worldwide Stooge-a-philes fell over themselves picturing Carrey, Penn and Del Toro nyuk-nyuk-nyuking themselves into a fine frazzle? If nothing else, we have to applaud Sean Hayes (Larry), Will Sasso (Curly) and Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe) for their Stooge-pendous moxie.
For the full review and Kimberly’s rating, please click here