You've probably had an opinion on the Three Stooges since you first learned of its existence-- an attempt to revive comedic icons 60 years after they were last popular is the kind of thing you don't just shrug your shoulders about, especially when the ones doing the reviving are the Farrelly Brothers, wildly uneven creators of both Hall Pass and There's Something About Mary. But now that we have an official trailer, which premiered at Apple and can also be viewed below, you can finally take that pre-judgment and apply it to a look at the actual film. And, not to spoil anything for you, but it's not looking great. Check it out for yourself below.
The actors Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos and Will Sasso are clearly putting their all into impressions of the original Stooges, but that's really only the beginning of the problems here. The Stooges were icons of their era, vaudevillians who translated their slapstick schtick to the movies when movie comedy was still being born. Everything about film has changed a lot since then, and while you can still watch original Stooges shorts and laugh at the physical gags and utter nonsense that goes on, it's impossible to imagine them brought to the modern age, in full color and HD resolution and talking to Snooki.
And yet, that's exactly what happens here, and it feels exactly as uncomfortable as it sounds. I'm not sure what I thought this trailer would do differently that would actually make this Stooges movie possible, but whatever it is, it sure isn't here. Credit where it's due to the actors faithfully reviving the Stooges as we remember them, but it's impossible to imagine them actually working in the context of a 2012 released feature film. The Three Stooges comes to theaters next April if you're still dead set on finding out for yourself.
