The Three Stooges 2012

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The purpose of the entire enterprise seems to demonstrate the superiority of slapstick sadism from 75 years ago to the wan attempts at PG-rated roughhouse today. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It pleases me to report that the movie is far from a disaster - on a dozen or so occasions, it's even funny. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ...while a good part of the picture reached my submerged Stooges person and made him laugh, too much of it just didn't connect at all. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Peter and Bobby Farrelly's thoroughly enjoyable paean to Moe, Larry and Curly and the art of the eye poke. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: They're mere imitations. There's nothing beneath the surface similarities and programmed franticness. Read more

Alison Willmore, AV Club: The Three Stooges isn't very funny, but it is, like last year's far superior The Muppets, a sincere act of fandom on an epic scale. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The movie is content to simply mimic the old Stooges, bringing nothing new to the table. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: A little nyuk-nyuk-nyuk goes a long way in "The Three Stooges," Peter and Bobby Farrelly's feature-length homage to the classic slapstick comedy trio. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I spent a lot of "The Three Stooges" staring, not laughing. For me this was a stare-out-loud affair. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's an enchantingly well-done tribute that revives, and even refreshes, our affection for the Stooges, yet at its core it lacks the completely and totally unhinged shock of the new. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Any reasonable objections to the Farrellys' Three Stooges will not be on the grounds that it desecrates a revered comedy franchise, but on the grounds that it's not very funny. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: [A] funny, good-hearted resuscitation of Hollywood's beloved lowbrow lunkheads. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: There is an appealing nyuk, nyuk nostalgic spirit to"The Three Stooges." Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: One of the Farrellys' better films and a movie in which excess -- the hallmark of everyone involved -- is decidedly a virtue. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The movie is so infantile that it achieves a special kind of purity and gentleness. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If this is a tribute, it's a crass and clumsy one. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: It's a concept that shouldn't work at all. But - who'da thunk it? - it's better than a hammer to the head. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: You would think that after a quarter-century in development at four different studios, somebody would have figured out how to make a funny movie about the Three Stooges. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I didn't laugh much. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: For the Farrellys, The Three Stooges is a labor of love. For non-believers, it's merely a labor. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: There is hardly a smidgeon of comic invention here. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: The Three Stooges weighs in at about 15 howlers over 90 minutes. Not bad, about the same ratio of hilarity to hokey as the Stooges' old shorts. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Get ready for something more shocking than a poke in the eye: The Three Stooges is genuinely funny, a no-holds-barred, smart-stupid comedy that (at the screening I attended, anyway) will win over Stooge-philes and non-believers alike. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: 'The Three Stooges' is exactly the film it wants to be. Was it worth ten years of anyone's life? Probably not. Is it worth 88 minutes of yours? Absolutely. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The metafriction between these classic dupes and today's idiots chafes uneasily. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The Three Stooges is moronic, stupid, idiotic entertainment for knuckleheads. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Pop culture references intermingle with the loopy trio's iconic foolishness, and the result is a movie with some big laughs, plenty of heart and terrible coifs. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Leave it to a sibling comedy duo to recognize the potential for brotherly love amid the Three Stooges' slap-happy antics, adding a welcome heartwarming dynamic to the gang's signature eye-poking, head-knocking routine. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: The leads acquit themselves in the physical comedy, resurrecting shtick honed on a thousand-and-one vaudeville stages, and recreated in as many playgrounds. Read more

Sean O'Connell, Washington Post: Even by Stooges standards, it's overly juvenile and totally dumb. Read more