I’m not sure who thought making a reboot of these characters was a good idea. Choosing the Farrelly Brothers to direct was the only smart decision as those two are pretty solid with physical comedy as demonstrated in Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. The three actors taking over as Larry Fine and the Howard Brothers did quite well with the originals’ mannerisms. But in the end, the movie doesn’t work and isn’t very funny. I wish I could put my finger on it too. Like many Gen Xers, I grew up with seeing the Stooges’ shorts from the Thirties and Forties on independent TV stations alongside their cartoon/movie revivals in the Sixties; Hercules Meets the Three Stooges is actually a pretty funny and clever film. The only explanation I can find is that tastes have changed. Vulgarity and slapstick do remain, how else did Adam Sandler get a career. What shifted is the approach or how it’s delivered. Characters more often have the bad things happen to them versus Moe pulling their hair out. The other mistake made was throwing in the Jersey Shore cast in the story. It’s ten years later and they’re already semi-forgotten, good riddance to such trash. In another ten, they’ll be lucky to be on a Trivial Pursuit card.