The Three Stooges: 6-Movie Set
Starring: Larry, Moe, Curly, Curly Joe
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Retail: $9.98
ASIN: B00HFWETIK
Running Time: 8 hours 6 minutes
Rating: Not Rated

Review:

Last year, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to release Sony Pictures Home Entertainment titles including those released under Columbia Home Entertainment, which happens to own the rights to The Three Stooges franchise. Earlier this month as two-disc set containing six of The Three Stooges films were released on DVD, featuring Have Rocket Will Travel, The Outlaws Is Coming, Rockin' in the Rockies, Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze, The Three Stooges Meet Hercules and Time Out for Rhythm.

Released in 1941, Time Out for Rhythm features Moe, Larry and Curly as co-stars in this musical comedy. Similar to a few of their shorts, they play out-of-work actors begging for a job, which happens to be for an agency owned by Danny Collins and Mike Armstrong. The trio don't get center-stage in this film, but they pop into the film every little bit. The film has been currently unreleased for fans until it was released as a manufactured-on-demand through the Columbia Choice Collection series in 2012.


Rockin' In The Rockies was released in 1945 with Moe, Larry and Curly in starring roles, but unlike their other films and shorts, Moe Howard doesn't play Moe, instead he plays Shorty Williams while Larry and Curly continue to play their regular roles. The film was considered a flop in 1945, but is now adored by fans. It was finally made available on DVD in The Three Stooges: The Ultimate Collection.

After the deaths of Curly and Shemp Howard, Joe Besser filled in as the third stooge to finish out the final sixteen shorts. While the last short was released in 1959, the older shorts made their way onto black & white television screens, exposing a new generation to the Stooges' antics. With the newly found appeal to their slapstick humor, Moe, Larry and Curly Joe (played by Joe DeRita) stepped into the big-screen with several feature films throughout the '60s, as well as a animated television series.

The Three Stooges: The Movie
Directed by: Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Starring: Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Release Date: 2012
Rated: PG
Running Time: 92 minutes

I grew up watching Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp, so I was more than a little skeptical when I heard about the Farrelly brothers remake (if you can call it a remake). I only saw the movie advertise on television once when it was at theaters and it did not look too good. Then I read a few bad reviews about the movie, making me less likely to go see it. The movie did not do very well at the theaters, barely covering its budget worldwide. I saw the DVD for under fifteen dollars and I talked myself into buying it.

The movie opens up with the same Stooges' tune and similar opening credits. The first episode is titled "More Orphan Than Not," which explains the Stooges back-story, where as babies they are left in basket outside of an orphanage. As they grow up and cause chaos for the nuns (played by Jane Lynch, Larry David, and a few others), Moe is almost adopted by a wealthy couple, but they end up adopting another orphan, Teddy, instead. Twenty-five years later, Moe (played by Chris Diamantopoulos), Larry (played by Sean Hayes), and Curly (played by Will Sasso) have never left the orphanage as they are now handymen, but the home that they have known is going to be closed down as the orphanage owes $830,000 in thirty days.