not horrible nor great

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I have to confess that I have never watched in its entirety any one of the classic Three Stooges short films. The few seconds that I have seen of any of their shorts has far from impressed me, with their brand of slapstick coming across as forced and far from inspired. But I have a feeling that any one of those original shorts has to play out a lot better than "Have Rocket - Will Travel". The biggest problem with this movie is that the Three Stooges look far too old for their brand of slapstick violence - when they slap and poke each other, you will wince seeing these elderly guys in pain. Another problem with the movie is that even though it's only about 78 minutes long, it feels way too long. There isn't a heck of a lot of plot here, and things are stretched out way past the breaking point, especially when the trio get back from Venus - the movie doesn't simply know what to do at that point. There are other problems, but those are the main two that make the movie quite an ordeal to sit through. If you want to see slapstick violence that's actually funny and energetic, watch a Terence Hill and Bud Spencer movie instead.

The planet Venus is populated by energy…that and a lonely robot. Make energy, a lonely robot and a tarantula which shoots fire out of its fangs. Oh, don't forget a squeaky voiced unicorn whom the Three Stooges rescue when they discover it caught with its horn caught in a rock. How the boys get to Venus is pretty forgettable, but unfortunately, it takes them forever to get there. They are good hearted, however, determined to help kind-hearted scientist Anna-Lisa invent a fuel which will get the rocket tipped upside down outside their shack upside right and prevent her boss (Jerome Cowan) from firing her. In the process, they pop popcorn, discover that sugar makes a great fuel (especially when Moe drinks the fuel by mistake, thinking it's coffee), and turn the plumbing business back fifty years in an effort to find the key to the spaceship which fell down a drain. Kids of the late 1950's might have found this funny, but this wouldn't cure the A.D.D. of today's youth who would find this instantly idiotic. Robert Colbert, the hero of "The Time Tunnel" and the original patriarch of "The Young and the Restless", is pretty much wasted as a fellow scientist in love with the pretty Anna-Lisa, basically standing back observing the goings-on of the foolish Three Stooges whose comedy even 30 years after their first appearances together is violent and dated, especially when presented to a young audience. An attempt to bring slapstick in with three robot versions of the boys coming down to earth after harassing the shrunken ones on Venus just falls flat. Then, there's a fight started at a lavish social gathering to honor the returned stooges, crowned heroes, in the film's ridiculous finale. Joe DeRita is a poor substitute for the late Curly, and the title song is weak as well. Stick with the shorts. At least they are over within 20 minutes.

It seems by this point that the Stooges seemed apologetic about their work. There was once a time when the Three Stooges could hit each other all they wanted without fear, but by 1959, when they were re-discovered by kiddies on TV, they had to tone down the violence a little. `Have Rocket, Will Travel', their first feature, has less slaps and eye pokes than their average two-reeler, thus resulting in less laughs. The Three Stooges play…The Three Stooges, and this time they're janitors at NASA. A pretty scientist (Anna Lisa) is about to be fired because her attempts to send a spaceship to Jupiter have been unsuccessful. To help her, the Stooges figure out what was wrong, but accidentally send the rocket while they're still in it. They land on Jupiter find a talking Unicorn, and get into some trouble with an evil computer that makes evil mechanic clones of them. Will they survive? The problem with `Have Rocket, Will Travel' is that it's talking down to a juvenile audience and trying to please the kiddies instead of being funny. What we're left with is Three nice Stooges and a talking Unicorn, which is so silly that it's virtually indescribable. And what about the Jupiter scenes? They appear to have been hastily filmed in a national park hoping the audience wouldn't notice the obvious flaws. `Have Rocket, Will Travel' is certainly likable, and it has one or two enjoyable musical numbers, but it just doesn't have the primitive humour and the laughs of their shorts from the 30s and 40s. However, it did spawn a Three Stooges feature film series that included `Snow White and the Three Stooges', `The Three Stooges in Orbit', and `The Outlaws is Coming!'

Have Rocket, Will Travel is a hilarious film starring The Three Stooges,Anna-Lisa,Jerome Cowan.It is directed by David Lowell Rich. The Stooges play janitors at a space research center that get blasted off into orbit. The film is fast paced and funny, but lacks on the Stooges trademark physical comedy that was performed from the 1920's from the 1950's. The Stooges film "The Three Stooges In Orbit" is similar to this because there is a comedy plot that has to do with science fiction and aliens. A "must-see" for every fan of the Stooges.