The greatest difficulty in adapting a comedy like the three stooges is time lapse. Comedy has changed a lot in 70 years. Therefore, this film has an immediate uphill battle. This means that any attempt to create new "three stooges" fans from a film in 2012 was a long shot. A very long shot.
However, if you grew up or enjoyed the humor of a bygone era like the three stooges, this film is a fantastic homage. It's clear the Farrelly brothers truly love the three stooges and this is most clear in their choice of actors. Rather than trying to get A listers to sell tickets, they clearly chose the best actors. I honestly can't imagine anyone doing a better impression of the stooges than these three.
At the end of the day, the filmmakers had two choices: make a modern stooges film that barely looks like the originals but has some famous A listers OR get some C listers, make it very faithful to the originals, and probably not win any new fans.
The filmmakers chose the latter and I think that was the right choice.
Other than a couple of jokes not landing (peeing babies and pulling out nose hairs), the film is an extremely faithful and funny recreation of the originals, plus with a few improvements in editing.
Other than a couple of jokes not landing (peeing babies and pulling out nose hairs), the film is an extremely faithful and funny recreation of the originals, plus with a few improvements in editing.