New 'The Three Stooges' Trailer Tries To Sell Slapstick

Remember when we thought for a minute that Johnny Knoxville might play Moe in the Peter and Bobby Farrelly version of The Three Stooges? That didn't happen, but now things have come full circle, in a way, as the new trailer for the film opens by emulating the warning that opened every episode of Knoxville's breakout show Jackass. The thrust of this trailer is slapstick: face slaps, eye pokes, hammers to the forehead, shellfish down the pants and a lot more. The question is: does it work?

Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, and Chris Diamantopoulos ended up playing the classic characters for the Farrelly Brothers, in the project that the directors have wanted to make for years. The first trailer showed off their impressions of the very recognizable Larry, Curly and Moe personas, but also suggested that some ineffable quality hadn't made the leap from past to present. What do we see how as the three guys slap the crap out of one another? This:

I'm left thinking the same thing I did after watching the first trailer: the three guys have done great impressions of the Stooges, but something doesn't connect. The physical comedy feels so rooted in a different time that I can't buy into it in this context. Your mileage may vary.

Yahoo has the trailer. The Three Stooges opens on April 13.

Left on a nun's doorstep, Larry, Curly and Moe grow up finger-poking, nyuk-nyuking and woo-woo-wooing their way to uncharted levels of knuckleheaded misadventure. Out to save their childhood home, only The Three Stooges could become embroiled in an oddball murder plot...while also stumbling into starring in a phenomenally successful TV reality show.