Posted on 04/16/2012 7:40:18 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
I’m not Catholic. But I can certainly understand why my Catholic friends are offended by the new “Three Stooges” movie, helmed by the irreverent Farrelly Brothers, released by Twentieth Century Fox.
The film would have been fine had Peter and Bobby Farrelly stuck to the slapstick comedy for which Moe, Larry and Curly are beloved by Stooges fans. But they had to ruin it, had to court controversy, by their sacrilegious portrayal of a Catholic nun as some sort of hoochie.
Cast as “Sister Bernice,” Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton wears a nun’s veil, an oversized rosary and a decidedly undersized, barely-there ‘nunkini.’ The newby actress might have known better than to insult the religious faith of 68.5 million Americans had she not dropped out of 10th grade at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne, Fla.
Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League, provided a useful history lesson for the 19-year-old tart.
“In the 1950s,” he recalled, “Hollywood generally avoided crude fare and was respectful of religion. Today, it specializes in crudity and trashes Christianity, especially Catholicism.”
Indeed, Tinseltown’s portrayal of nuns has gone from Jennifer Jones, in “The Song of Bernadette,” and Julie Andrews, in “The Sound of Music,” to Lindsay Lohan, as a gun-licking nun in the Robert Rodriguez flick “Machete,” and, now, Upton, as a skanky nun in “Three Stooges.”
What particularly galls is that studio execs at Twentieth Century Fox think the sacrilegious portrayal of a nun is some great big joke.
“As far as the nun attire,” one Fox exec told The Hollywood Reporter, “I think we did the audience a favor by letting Kate Upton wear the nunkini rather than Larry David,” who (cross)dressed up in nun’s garb to play Sister “Mary Mengele.”
Well, as Curly the Stooge might say, “Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.”
It’s soooo funny to mock the Catholic faith. Soooo clever to portray a nun attired in a skimpy outfit much far more likely to be seen in a strip club than on a beach (much less a church). Soooo hilarious to give another nun the same last name as the Nazi physician at Auschwitz known as the “Angel of Death.”
But imagine if the Farrelly brothers directed the same “Stooges” script, if Fox released the same film with, say, homosexuals or blacks or Mexican illegals or Muslims as the butt of the film’s denigrating humor, rather than Catholics.
There would be such a hue and cry from the far-left, politically-correct Hollywood establishment that the fair-haired Farrelly boys might never work in that town again.
Hollywood is a God-forsaken wasteland. And it continues to rend America’s moral fabric.
Are you suggesting that Catholics were complicit in the Holocaust?
I called the nuns I grew up with all sorts of names, and most were not flattering.
No I didn’t take major offense, and frankly I thought they character was actually far tamer than I expected her to be given she was to be their “foil” during their childhood.
If I am going to get worked up every time someone takes a cheap shot at Catholics I’d never have time for anything else. I didn’t walk into the movie expecting it to be a testament or ode to my faith. I didn’t get offended when the Stewardess told the priest “your own knees father” in Airplane II either.. in fact I laughed out loud.
I didn’t see my religion really presented in a negative light in the film, in fact it was about as generic a portrayal as you could find. Wasn’t really a huge commentary on religioin at all, just a characters in a story, and the story had really nothing to do with religion of any sort. Believe me, I’ve watched idiots take cheap shots at the foundation of my faith my entire life, including often times on this very site.
I can’t get upset everyone puts on a habbit and tells an off color joke at my religions expense, and frankly this movie didn’t offend my sensibilities at all. I did find the nun in the bikini scene nothing more than an attempt at a cheap sight gag, that didn’t work for me, and really wasn’t needed, but it didn’t make feel like my religion was assaulted.
I agree, the film was far better than I expected... I did expect a lot more cheap shotting and I have no doubt many scenes were filmed but were recognized to simply not be funny or to be too predictable and were left on the cutting room floor.
The movie itself was a pretty fair homage to the source material, and far better than I had expected.
What, no pics?
What I find offensive is that ignoramuses like you continue to engage in revisionist history. Your conclusion can only be reached if you have your head in your dirt chute.
Alsi, the nuns were portrayed as good, caring, and decent people. They are exasperated after dealing with the knuckleheads for 25 years, but they clearly love them, even going out of their way to spare their feelings.
The Stooges themselves go out to save their orphanage, motivated by loyalty and live.
The boys themselves are bound by fraternal love.
Anyone finding something to be deeply offended about is just looking too hard.
A wise guy, eh?
I’m an old stooges fan. I liked Sean Hayes as Jerry Lewis and I’ve heard the actors doing Moe and Curly get it right; so I’ll probably go see.
I am surprised at the comments about a Farrelly Bros movie. It’s not like they can sneak up on you. Pay attention PEOPLE! It’s the Farrelly Bros!!
Fair enough!
I completely agree.
Not at all. If anything it’s Catholics trying to revise history to cover their tracks.
The church isn’t perfect...look at the middle ages, I think we can all agree the church was corrupt then. After all the church is just made up of “man” and man is flawed.
I made a similar statement in 12th grade, which got me sent to the principles office. But after I proved it to them they apologized to me and allowed me to brief the class. And this was in the deep south! So I absolutely do know what I’m talking about with facts and have known it for years—before the Internet was even in wide spread use.
When I was a high school freshman, the chemistry teacher was a nun (can't remember her name, didn't take chemistry) who was very attractive. After the end of the school year, she ran off with the chemistry supply salesman. True story.
I grew up with the Stooges (not just the ones in my own house). I’ve not seen this movie, but have seen the trailers, and the bit these “actors” did on WWE last week. These people are posers, nothing more. They do NOT have the original Stooges down “pat”, but are pale imitations. Yet again Hollyweird has taken from the past that which should have been left alone. Just as they did with “True Grit”, Hollyweird has destroyed Icons that should not have been “recreated”.
Yes, because the "Exorcist" was released as a child-friendly movie, right? Oh, wait. It did have that pesky "R" rating, didn't it?
What about “Malice In The Palace”?
But no Shemp? Now, that’s really offensive.
Do some reading like
HOLOCAUST-SURVIVING JEWS THANK POPE
Israeli diplomat praises Pope Pius XII for saving thousands of Jews during the Holocaust
'Nazi' Pope helped Jews flee Holocaust
'Hitler's Pope' saved thousands of Jewish lives
Evidently you never heard of the Encyclical "Mit Brennender Sorge" 9With burning concern), signed by Pope Pius XI which condemned Nazi ideology as "insane and arrogant" and
Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the state, or a particular form of state, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community—however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things—whoever raises these notions above their standard value and raises them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by GodIf you read William L Shirer's "The Rize and fall of Nazi Germany" a scholarly work that notes that afer this " thousands of Catholic priests, nuns and lay leaders were arrested, many of them on trumped-up charges of 'immorality' or 'smuggling foreign currency'."
St.Maximilian Kolbe was sent to the concentration camps for speaking out against the Nazis.
2 million Catholic Poles were slaughtered by Nazis
The Archbishop of Utrecht in the Netherlands published a letter on April 19, 1942, which was read in every Catholic church in the country. The bishops of Holland jointly denounced "the unmerciful and unjust treatment meted out to Jews by those in power in our country."
The Israeli historian Pinchas Lapide interviewed war survivors and concluded that Pius XII "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands"
In contrast, point out what your particular cult did against the Nazis?
I, too, grew up with the stooges (as you may be able to tell by my screen name) and have a poster of them on my wall as I type this.
I laughed my a** off during this movie, ‘till tears came to my eyes. So did the rest of the audience which was made up of about 75% husbands and wives my age, and 25% families with kids from about 8-17. Everyone was having a good time.
The guys did a great job and the guy playing Moe, sounded like Moe.
Come on, people, it’s the 3 Stooges (2012). If you liked the 3 Stooges when you were kids, want a good time, a lot of laughs and an hour and a half to escape from the rest of the world, I highly recommend the movie.
As someone who has actually seen the movie, I can tell you you couldn’t be more wrong. But most people talking about things they haven’t seen or done generally are.
I have no idea what they did on WWE, nor do I care, as I’m sure it was just a promotional stunt for the movie cobbled together to get it in front of the WWE audience.
The movie itself was very fun, and frankly far better than I expected it to be. That said, I am sure the cutting room floor of this movie was filled with jokes, sight gags and other scenes that were filmed but never made it to the finished product, because they were too tastelsess, crude, offensive, or flat out not funny.
I was genuinely surprised how well a job they did with this movie, I fully expected to go in and see my childhood memories of this franchised ripped apart as Hollywood has done with so many modernizations. I laughed out loud many times at this movie, as did my kids and the rest of the audience.
In terms of what made it to the finished product, the actors did a spectacular job with mannerisms, visuals etc of the original 3. About the only real weakness might have been Moe didn’t visually look more like Moe, Curly and Larry were supurb. However the actor playing Moe’s mannerisms, vocalization and carrying of the character were spot on.
Believe me, I walked into that theater fully expecting to be disappointed, I left about an hour and a half later, having laughed out loud time and again, having truly enjoyed myself.
I am not going to say its an Oscar Nominee, but what made it to the actual theatrical release was a pretty respectful rendition of a classic franchise. I have no reservations telling folks to go see the movie, if you enjoy the classic shorts you will enjoy the movie.
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