by Nat Almirall, Apr 13 2012 // 10:00 AM
I’m probably going to see better comedies this year, but I don’t think I’m going to laugh at any one as much as I did at The Three Stooges. When I told that to my editors, they both wrote back in disbelief. I know the trailer got a massive amount of flack—the appearance of Snooki was a major criticism—but I’m not alone in my appreciation of the film. My colleague at SlashFilm, Jordan Hoffman, recently shared his like.
And it’s the Farrellys; after nearly 20 years of their films, have we learned to not underestimate them yet? Whatever. The movie is funny, very, very funny and, as Ebert noted in his review, is as good a film that could have been made about The Three Stooges. If you don’t like the original shorts, you probably won’t like it, but if you do, I think you’ll laugh a lot, because the Farrellys stay close to the source.
The plot is as shallow as any of the original shorts—the boys try to raise $830,000 to save an orphanage, getting caught up in several hair-brained, money-making schemes. That’s pretty much it. Of course one of those schemes involves an unwitting assassination, and Moe somehow ends up as the star of Jersey Shore; there’s Larry David as a put-upon nun (with a very pronounced New Jersey accent) and Jane Lynch as Mother Superior; a subplot involving an angry lion at the zoo and a sick kid at the orphanage.
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Posted in: 20th Century Fox · Comedy · Movies · Reviews
Tagged: Bobby Farrelly, Brian Doyle-Murray, Chris Diamantopoulos, Fox, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Hudson, Kate Upton, Kirby Heyborne, larry david, Lin Shaye, Peter Farrelly, Sean Hayes, Sofia Vergara, The Farrelly Brothers, The Three Stooges, Will Sasso
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by Matt Blackwood, Jan 13 2012 // 9:00 AM

The sports movie genre is pretty bipolar. Sports movies jump from the maudlin (“Rudy! Rudy!”) to the asinine (“Dogs can’t play basketball!”) with very few steps in between. Division III: Football’s Finest is definitely closer to the latter, but holds on to reality enough to stay out of Air Bud territory (a good call, considering how that terrain is marked).
That is not to say the movie does not reach heights of ridiculousness. With Andy Dick, Paul Henderson, and no less than four MadTV alumni in the cast, Division III is host to several characters that would seem over-the-top in a cartoon, but the film stays grounded enough to be aware of its own silliness. Most importantly, Division III is very funny, easily on par with a first-tier Happy Madison comedy.
Expect first-time feature director Marshall Cook, pulling quadruple duty here, to graduate to the big leagues in no time at all. His comic instincts are good both on camera, as a slacker quarterback, and off, directing, editing, and co-writing (along with Dick and Henderson). Thanks to Cook and company, most of the gags hit home, and the movie never dwells on those that don’t.
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Posted in: Comedy · Movies · Reviews · Sports
Tagged: Adam Carolla, Alison Haislip, Andy Dick, Blu-Ray, football, Image Entertainment, Marshall Cook, Movies, Will Sasso
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by Sebastian Suchecki, Dec 8 2011 // 7:30 AM
Fans of the original slapstick trio The Three Stooges were hoping, beyond hope, that when the upcoming rebooted film hit casting troubles when actors like Jim Carrey, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn dropped out, that the production would get buried and never see the light of day. They were wrong.
The film proceeded forward and was made. Now, the first trailer for the upcoming Three Stooges film from The Farrelly Brothers has stumbled onto the web with the cast of Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, and Chris Diamantopoulos as the titular Stooges.
Before you start to defend the film by saying how good There’s Something About Mary was, remember that film is over 12 years old, and these are the same guys that brought us The Heartbreak Kid.
The trailer pretty much speaks for itself, as it features tons of C-list stars and 2 prominent cast members of Jersey Shore. Take a look at the unfortunate trailer after the jump and catch (or don’t) Three Stooges in theaters on April 13th.
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Posted in: 20th Century Fox · Comedy · Movies · News · Reboots and Remakes · Trailers · Video
Tagged: Bobby Farrelly, Chris Diamantopoulos, Craig Bierko, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Hudson, larry david, Peter Farrelly, Sean Hayes, Sofia Vergara, Stephen Collins, The Three Stooges, Will Sasso
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by Matt Raub, May 31 2010 // 8:00 AM
In the past few years, CBS has tried very hard to dump the stigma of their programming being thought of as “TV for old people.” They’ve done a pretty decent job by greenlighting unconventional sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory that weren’t about the same old family problems and the comedic ways people get out of them.
Continuing this trend, CBS picked up $#*! My Dad Says, based on the Twitter account of the same name. The show follows a young man who lives with his 74 year old father, who is constantly saying or doing outrageous things. That father? William Shatner.
On top of the concept of picking up an entire TV show based on a few tweets, CBS has also decided to keep the implied expletive in the title, as opposed to calling it “Stuff” or “Things.” At the risk of their ratings, this has even outraged the Parents Television Council
The rest of the cast reads like a MadTV reunion. Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan join alongside Ryan Devlin (Cougar Town) and others. Shatner manages to bring the “off the cuff” humor to this new show that made his role as Denny Crane on Boston Legal the legend it is today.
Check out the first behind the scenes clip for the show after the jump, and stay tuned to the network this fall, as $#*! My Dad Says is currently slated for Thursday nights at 8:30/7:30 C.
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Posted in: Casting · CBS · Comedy · Fall Previews · News · TV · Video
Tagged: $#! My Dad Says, Big Bang Theory, Boston Legal, CBS, Denny Crane, How I Met Your Mother, MadTV, Nicole Sullivan, Ryan Devlin, Will Sasso, William Shatner
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by Matt Raub, Mar 4 2010 // 12:00 PM
Any real fans of the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright trio know that they all didn’t meet on the set of Shaun of the Dead. In fact, the reason they got the chance to do Shaun was due to the success of a 1999 BBC TV series they all created called Spaced.
The show, starring Pegg, Frost, and Jessica Hynes, was about a comic book artist who has to fake a marriage with a complete stranger in order to stay in an apartment made for “professional couples.” The show was quirky and funny, and developed a huge cult following on DVD. It also seemed to turn the heads of a few US producers, including McG and now producer of Chuck and Human Target, Peter Johnson.
The U.S. version of the show was a failure, to say the least, and never made it past the pilot stage. None of the original creative team were involved, or even brought into the loop that the show existed, until recently. Simon Pegg twittered a clip from the failed pilot, starring Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect), Josh Lawson, and Will Sasso (MadTV).
Take a look at the clip after the jump, and you’ll understand why the show never made it past the unaired pilot. The only thing worth mentioning is that Will Sasso truly is the US version of Nick Frost. Outside of that, there isn’t much going for this half-assed clone of a show.
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Posted in: Action · Comedy · Editorial and Opinion · News · Reboots and Remakes · TV · Video
Tagged: Edgar Wright, Jessica Hynes, Josh Lawson, McG, Nick Frost, peter johnson, Sara Rue, shaun of the dead, Simon Pegg, Spaced, Will Sasso
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