THE THREE STOOGES (2012), GREEN BOOK (2018)

The Three Stooges

Peter Farrelly (along with brother Bobby) has come up with some of the most outrageous and popular comedies of the last twenty or so years, including: There's Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin (a personal favorite of mine). I realized that I  had somehow missed the Farrelly Brothers recreation of The Three Stooges from 2012. . In it, Moe (Chris Diamontopoulos), Larry (Sean Hayes), and Curly (Will Sasso) re-created these iconic characters perfectly. The plot involves the boys attempts to save the orphanage where they were raised, but the plot really isn't that important in a Three Stooge comedy, is it? What's important are the gags and they come a mile a minute and usually involve punching, tweaking, pulling hair, throwing someone out a window or running someone over in a vehicle. Stupid? Yes. Funny? Yes.

I have to admit the only reason I decided to watch The Three Stooges was to pair it up with Peter Farrelly's Oscar nominated film, Green Book. That's right, the director of Shallow Hal has taken a dramatic turn and met with success! The only previous award listed for Farrelly is a Razzie for the infamous Movie 43.

Green Book

Green Book is based on the real life story of jazz pianist Don Shirley's (Mahershala Ali) travels on a musical tour through the South with his driver, bouncer Tony Lip (Viggo Mortgenssen). The pair seem to have little in common, but form a bond and the tour turns out to be a great learning experience for them both. The film has been criticized for playing loose with the facts or being a bit of a rehash of Driving Miss Daisy or not properly "woke." Eh...I think Farrelly's venture into more serious fare was a success...Certainly a box office success...and won Academy Awards for Screenplay, Supporting Actor and the big prize of Best Picture! Farrelly wasn't nominated for Best Director, but I'm thinking he's not losing much sleep over that.

Peter Farrelly celebrates his Best Picture Oscar

Should Green Book have won over BlackkKlansman, Roma or The Favourite for Best Picture? I'll have to think on that one, but I will say the owner of my local movie house The Crescent said several hundred people came to see the movie while it played there and almost everyone he talked to loved it.