The Three Stooges (promoted as The Three Stooges: The Movie) is a 2012 American slapstick comedy film based on the 1925–1970 comedy trio of the same name. It was produced, written and directed by the Farrelly brothers and co-written by Mike Cerrone. It stars Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes, and Will Sasso, re-creating the eponymous characters played by Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard.
The story updates the Stooges in a 21st-century setting, where they try to save their childhood orphanage from foreclosure while inadvertently getting mixed up in a murder plot and a reality TV show.
The film was in development hell for a decade, stemming from casting issues and other delays. The principal photography took place from May to July 2011. The film was released by 20th Century Fox on April 13, 2012. It received mixed reviews by critics, who praised its performances (specifically those by Diamantopoulos, Hayes and Sasso), the humor and Farrelly brothers' direction along with faithfulness to the source material, but the convoluted narrative was lambasted.
Plot The film has three acts, referred to as episodes (a reference to how the original Three Stooges short films were packaged for television by Columbia Pictures).
Episode 1: More Orphan Than Not In 1977, at the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage, three destructive infants (Moe, Larry, and Curly) are thrown in a duffel bag onto the orphanage's doorstep from an unknown person's car. The trio wreaks havoc in the place, terrifying the nuns—especially Sister Mary-Mengele (played by Larry David), who has always hated them.
10 years later, in 1987, desperate to be rid of the three, the nuns tell a prospective adoptive couple that the trio are the only three children available. They're then forced to add a fourth for consideration when a boy named Teddy wanders into the room. The Harters pick Moe; but when he requests that Larry and Curly join him, they take him back to the orphanage and choose Teddy instead.
25 years later, in the present, the trio are adults (played by Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe, Sean Hayes as Larry, and Will Sasso as Curly), still living at the orphanage and working as maintenance men. Monsignor Ratliffe tells Mother Superior (played by Jane Lynch) that the orphanage must be closed, and she tells Sister Mary-Mengele to fetch the trio. The three are trying to fix the malfunctioning bell on the roof; but when Larry removes the bell's "DO NOT REMOVE" tag (misreading it as "Donut Remover"), it falls and injures Sister Mary-Mengele just as she arrives. When they go to the Mother Superior, another accident causes Monsignor Ratliffe to fall on top of the nuns. Moe, Larry and Curly, thinking he is "getting fresh" with the nuns, attack him, until Mother Superior stops them. Ratliffe will not adopt them either as he is on official business.
Mother Superior tells everyone that the orphanage must close unless they can raise $830,000 in 30 days. The trio volunteers to try to raise the money.
Episode 2: The Bananas Split A subplot involves a woman named Lydia (played by Sofia Vergara), who wants to kill her husband so she can be with her lover, Mac, and inherit her husband's fortune. She finds the trio and offers to pay them to take care of the hit job, pretending that Mac is her terminally ill husband that wants to be put out of his misery and have him switch with her real husband when the moment comes. They botch the job by letting Curly push Mac in front of a bus and leave Mac in traction in the hospital. When they try to visit Mac in the hospital to finish the job, they are chased by two police officers, escape by jumping off the roof using a fire hose, and run into a now grown-up Teddy, who invites them to his anniversary party and an opportunity to settle at his home, but Moe refuses.
It is then revealed that Teddy is actually Lydia's husband. The trio's next scheme for raising the money is selling farm-raised salmon, with them scattering live salmon on a golf range and watering them like produce. But the same police officers from the hospital arrive at the golf course to arrest them and the trio gets chased off the golf course and they hide in an old building. After having a slapstick fight, Larry and Curly scold Moe for rejecting Teddy's invitation and his father's earlier adoption attempt that they could have used his adoptive parents' wealth to help save the orphanage. Hurt, Moe tells them to leave, saying that he is tired of being with them. After deciding to split up, Larry and Curly leave the old building, with Moe inside alone. Then it turns out that they were all on stage in front of an audition crew who select Moe to be the newest cast member of Jersey Shore as "Dyna-Moe", much to his shock and surprise.
Final Episode: No Moe Mr. Nice Guy Larry and Curly are getting along well without Moe, but they worry about him and decide to return to the orphanage to find him. There, they find out that a girl named Murph is very ill but has not been taken to the hospital because the orphanage has no medical insurance. Sister Mary-Mengele angrily tells them that no one will insure the orphanage due to the trio's numerous accidents and injuries over the years, and the $830,000 is needed to cover medical bills they owe from previous claims.
Larry and Curly meet up with Teddy's adopted father to talk about what happened with the orphanage. Teddy's father confesses that Moe wanted him to go back for his friends to adopt them, and he thought three kids would be too many to handle, so he gave Moe back and took Teddy in his place. Then Larry and Curly discover a picture of Teddy and Mr. Harter with Lydia and Mac, and realize that Teddy is the husband that Lydia wanted to murder. In addition, they feel guilty for rebuking Moe in not accepting the Harter's adoption and decide to find him.
Meanwhile, Moe has been causing a havoc on Jersey Shore by slapping, eye-poking, and head-bopping the cast members and not putting up with their spoiled antics. The cast goes to the producer and tells him to kick Moe off of the show or they will sue him. The producer then informs them that the show is all about the ratings and not them. Larry and Curly go to the set of Jersey Shore to reunite with Moe, and they all head to the anniversary party where they show up to thwart the murder plot, getting in as balloon men.
When they get inside, Curly gives the balloons to a little girl and she floats into the air. Later, they get chased by Lydia and Mac after the same girl's balloons are popped and she falls onto the wedding cake, destroying it. Moe, Larry, and Curly are chased into Teddy's bedroom, finding Teddy on the bed, drowsy. Mac then confesses that Lydia was "calling the shots", but Mr. Harter corrects Mac and admits that he was the real mastermind and Lydia was working for him. He married into the money and was incensed to find out the money was left to Teddy and not him when Teddy's mother died years earlier.
They are taken for a ride, but the car crashes into a lake when Curly's pet rat Nippy digs into Lydia's cleavage. They all escape when Curly farts, and Moe ignites it with some "easy-light, waterproof safety matches" that Larry had, causing enough of an explosion to blow out the windows. Once they are back on land, Mr. Harter, Lydia, and Mac are arrested, and Teddy thanks the trio for saving him.
A couple of months later, the trio return to the now-condemned/abandoned orphanage. They find that a new orphanage was built next door and learn that the money came from the Jersey Shore'''s producers, who consider this as an advance payment in relation to a new reality show, Nuns vs. Nitwits, in which the entire trio will take part.
Murph is revealed to be fine, and her illness was due to metal poisoning. She, along with her friend Peezer and his brother Weezer, are adopted by Teddy and his new fiancée, Ling, who was Teddy's father's secretary. In the end, after Curly accidentally knocks Sister Mary-Mengele into the pool as the orphanage celebrates the adoption, the trio run away, bounce off some trampolines over the hedge and land on some mules, on which they clumsily ride into the distance.
Post-script epilogue An epilogue consists of two actors playing Bobby and Peter Farrelly, explaining that the stunts were all done by professionals, showing the foam rubber props used in the film for the trio to hit one another, demonstrating the fake eye-poke trick (to the eyebrows), and advising children not to try any of the stunts at home.
During the end credits, a music video plays showing the Stooges and Sister Rosemary performing "It's a Shame", originally recorded by The Spinners in 1970, interspersed with excerpts from deleted scenes and a couple of brief outtakes. Though credited to "The Spinners and The Three Stooges", Hudson's own distinctive vocals can also be heard.
Cast Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe Howard, the bossiest and more short-tempered member of the Stooges. Skyler Gisondo as young Moe Sean Hayes as Larry Fine, the reasonable and most grounded member of the Stooges. Lance Chantiles-Wertz as young Larry Will Sasso as Curly Howard, the more wild and most childish member of the Stooges. Robert Capron as young Curly Larry David as Sister Mary-Mengele, a bad-tempered and strict nun at the orphanage, who has a massive grudge against the Stooges. Jane Lynch as Mother Superior, the head nun of the orphanage in which the Stooges grew up. Sofía Vergara as Lydia Harter, Teddy's former wife who wants to exploit the Stooges and murder Teddy to gain his inheritance. Jennifer Hudson as Sister Rosemary, a nun who works at the orphanage who is a talented singer. Craig Bierko as Mac Mioski, Lydia's former lover and henchman. Stephen Collins as Mr. Harter, Teddy's adoptive father, a corrupt lawyer who married for money, rather than for love; wants to murder his adopted son Teddy out of spite because his late wife and Teddy's deceased adoptive mother left her inheritance to Teddy rather than himself. Kirby Heyborne as Theodore J. "Teddy" Harter, a long-lost friend of the Stooges who they met at the orphanage who was adopted as a child by the Harters. Emy Coligado as Ling, Mr. Harter's former, friendly secretary who eventually becomes Teddy's fiancé after he divorces Lydia Avalon Robbins as Murph, a sick young girl at the orphanage who is a friend of the Stooges; adopted by Teddy and Ling Max Charles as Peezer, Weezer's older brother, Murph's best friend and a friend of the Stooges; adopted by Teddy and Ling Reid Meadows as Weezer, Peezer's younger brother; adopted by Teddy and Ling. Brian Doyle-Murray as Monsignor Ratliffe, the head of the diocese who the Stooges mistakenly call "Señor Ratlips". Lin Shaye as Nursery Nurse, a nurse who works at the hospital Caitlin Colford as Katilyn, a nurse who first notices the Stooges when they first come to the orphanage. Carly Craig as Mrs. Harter, Mr. Harter's wife who adopted Teddy and leaves the entire inheritance to Teddy over her husband after she dies in a hunting accident. Kate Upton as Sister Bernice, a kind-hearted, sexy nun at the orphanage Marianne Leone as Sister Ricarda, a nun at the orphanage Isaiah Mustafa as Ralph, a producer for Jersey Shore Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi as herself Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino as himself Jennifer "JWoww" Farley as herself Ronnie Ortiz-Magro as himself Samantha "Sweetheart" Giancola as herself Dwight Howard as himself, a basketball player who teaches at the new orphanage Lee Armstrong as Officer Armstrong Roy Jenkins as Officer Mycroft Justin Lopez and Antonio Sabàto Jr. as Peter & Bobby Farrelly, the co-directors of the film, who are both seen during the post-script epilogue explaining the stunts Jerod Mayo and Troy Brown both provide cameo roles
Production Development and writing