Sledge Reviews: Arthur (2011) Starring Russel Brand

Yes, for those of you wondering, this is a remake of the original 1981 hit movie starring Dudley Moore. Unfortunately, this one falls short - way short - of creating the same charm and wit of the original.

Sure, I admit it, I loved Dudley Moore's version of Arthur and generally find Russell Brand funny, but this was a mild stinker - the kind of stinker that you have to see with a serious buzz on to find funny at any level. Don’t get me wrong, this movie had its moments and I laughed (I think twice,) but that's not enough for me to call this movie a “comedy,” let alone recommend it to anyone (who is sober.)

Brand is normally enjoyable to watch on screen, but his delivery in this flick was uneven, poorly edited, and lacked style which would have made it much more enjoyable. The writers (yes there were 2 stiffs involved and they were both asleep at the wheel) and the director seemed to miss obvious opportunities to make the audience laugh, but instead resorted to gags I have heard or seen a dozen times before. Unfortunately, the best lines were in the trailer so they failed to make an impact during the actual showing.  

Jennifer Garner looked good at times, but her character was like watching Sybil (circa 2011). Her mood swings were wild, but not nearly as bad as her father’s character played by the freeze-dried Nick Notle who wasn’t defrosted all the way from the cryo-freezer before walking onto the set. He was more than stiff and seemed like he wanted to be somewhere else during the few scenes he was in. He was just awful.

Helen Mirren was the only person in this movie who earned their paycheck. She played Hobson with the grace and elegance we’ve come to expect from her, and without her work in this movie, I would have walked out half way through.

Greta Gerwig’s character came across as having to deliver lines once written for Arthur (and cut from the script) and she lacked any depth to stand on her own. She was boring and uninteresting. Maybe the writers forgot to watch the first version of Arthur since they seemed to miss the point of this movie.

As for the ending... I thought for a moment the writers were going to take us down a different path than the original and leave Arthur poor (which I think would have been better), but they didn’t. They let me down and took the easy way out in the final scene. They should have taken the chance to change the ending since the rest of their movie was crap. My popcorn was excellent and there were only two other people in the theatre which helped make the experience a little more tolerable, but...

Skip this one until it’s on DVD. Then light up a doobie, drinks two shots of whiskey while raising a toast to Dudley Moore, and then pop this below average movie into the DVD player and give it a go.