The Three Stooges Meet Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
BY JOE VIGLIONE

Joe Viglione Review: People love the juvenile, violent humor of the Three Stooges though I grew out of it rather quickly. The sophomoric domestic abuse Moe Howard would exact on his brethren…and Howard would make excuses on the Mike Douglas Show how the Westerns were even more violent, well, this kind of over the top insanity infiltrates the 2025 Splitsville and this critic thinks that it distracts.

A motion picture opening with male frontal nudity and death was a bit unnerving for me. The lies and marital subterfuge from the irresponsible behavior of all involved more likened to a descent into hell rather than a clever film about marriages that might be thought-provoking rather than just provocative.

Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin are friendly fellows and fun to interview but that affability didn’t translate well through the Splitsville lens. As a viewer, with the critic’s hat off, movies that compel me to watch them time and again …. and again, to feel the acting and a unique direction tend to move filmed essays up my personal favorites list. Tragedy and nudity to begin things set a bad tone for me. Two dudes shellacking each other rather than leaning on one another and the deceptions and the money troubles – well, the lack of redemption too much of a downer to generate any hope of resurrection.

Now had Ashley (Adria Arjona) run off with Julie (Dakota Johnson) and Carey (Kyle Marvin) found love with Paul (Michael Angelo Covino), rather than beating the tar out of each other, this motion picture may have found itself. Indeed, two guys could work out the budgets life hurls at us much better, as could two women. The best thing about this motion picture is that it shows how flawed heterosexuality is when it comes to real life, and an adaption of Twilight Zone author Charles Beaumont’s short story, The Crooked Man, (first bravely published by Hugh Hefner in Playboy Magazine, 1955) would have served all involved much better. Wikipedia notes that Splitsville brought in $3.2 million. In 1969 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice brought in 31.9 million on a budget of 2 million. Your Honor, I rest my case.

Splitsville – the interview Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin double as the writers and stars of the film
https://joeviglione.substack.com/p/splitsville-the-interview-michael