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I saw the movie “Arthur” the other day and trust me that’s saying a lot! Let me put it this way it was a cross between “Arthur” and “Hop” and this seemed like the lesser of two evils.
Ouch!
Not a great mindset for going into a movie is it?
Let me start off by declaring my dislike -it’s mild but stilldislike for actor Russell Brand in general.
It all comes down to this: how much Russell Brand can you stomach? But I’m getting ahead of myself once again.
However I will say he should get credit here for at least acting a little better than he usually does.
But then again, I don’t want to give him too much credit either! (I know, I know, I’m tough!)
Brand is the perfect man to play this character. He has advantage coming into this role: a crap load of real life experience! He's already built up this partying persona and has a fully realized reputation as a man who once indulged in illegal substances regularly and slept with as many women as he could lay his eyes on.
This is a remake of the original “Arthur” from way back in 1981.
When I saw the original, I was too young to fully understand it. I only have hazy memories of the story. All I took away from it at the time was that Dudley Moore, who played Arthur wore a top hat, took a lot of bubble baths and laughed all the time. I naively thought people were annoyed by his silly giggling, not his alcoholism. Hey, I was young!
Oh, and I remember the totally awesome theme song by Christopher Cross.
So I'm not going to compare this film to the original, because honestly, who cares?
So if you've forgotten -or have never seen the Dudley Moore version, here’s a refresher: a boozing, billionaire named Arthur (duh) is faced with an ultimatum from his controlling mother; either he enters into an arranged marriage with a rich socialite (played by Jennifer Garner) or he loses his family fortune.
Not a difficult choice, really, except that at the same time he falls for a quirky New York City tour named Naomi
In other words, he’s a rich man-child who has no real responsibilities in life.
Sidenote:This being 2011, it's no longer acceptable in a PG-13 movie to show drunk people actually enjoying themselves without horrible consequences, so our Arthur eventually wants to get clean and ends up in AA.
Arthur is smitten, but he's also stuck. If he marries Susan, he'll be rich and miserable, but if he goes with Naomi, he'll be happy and broke.
Will true love win out in the end or does greed make Arthur too weak to stand up to Mommy Dearest?
What's an alcoholic spendthrift to do? And, more importantly, do you care?
Brand’s eager to please, but his take on Arthur is extremely obnoxious, making the character borderline hateable.
It's difficult to empathize much for a character who wastes money and chug a lugs alcohol, especially at a time when so many Americans are losing their jobs.
In "Arthur" Brand tries really hard to be funny, manically tossing out joke after dirty joke in a odd, almost angry voice. Umm, an awkward Russell Brand is not a funny Russell Brand, especially when he's playing a guy like Arthur who’s supposed to be a happy drunk.
Russell Brand has admitted that Arthur has and I quote “taken some flak'off from critics”, but he defended it as a beautiful film.
He went on to say he would think twice in the future if he were ever offered a role in another remake of a classic comedy.
Wow, that’s kind of a l contradiction in terms, isn’t it Mr. Brand?
What Arthur boils down to is a movie that's not so much bad as much as it just "is".
Like I said, I'm no "Arthur" fanatic, so the remake didn’t bug me as a fan; it bugged me as a moviegoer.
In other words I can look back at “Arthur”and say it exists. I can say I saw it and that it didn't offend me. I made my way through it and by the time I was done I just got up and left.
Money may be no object for Arthur but for most of us it is. So I say don't waste yours on this so-so movie.
Rated: PG-13 |
Posted by oxyjen on Apr 14, 2011
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