Arthur Reviews

First, not as good as the original.   Not surprising or expected.  Second, I can't help but enjoy Russel Brand's brand of humor, as I know it's not for everybody. And who doesn't like Helen Mirren? With these in the lead roles it's impossible to have a bad time. However, the editing is atrocious and the structure gives us no surprises.

Still, if you're looking for a fun, light-hearted comedy, you're likely to enjoy this movie.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this movie but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I didn't care much for the damned thing, I'm afraid. First of all, I have to admit that I have never seen the original version and I wonder how they could make anything really great from such material. Anyway, the tricky thing with this tale was that they introduced Arthur as a really vapid and rather unlikable character and, then, they spent the rest of the movie trying to convince the viewers that he was actually a rather nice guy after all. Wouldn't it have been more refreshing if they just had let him be an ass from the beginning until the very end? Another thing that didn't work was Hobson. When I saw that the great Helen Morden was playing this character,  I was intrigued and I thought she would play her like a very strict old-fashioned British governess. However, it turned out that she actually really cared for Arthur but, even though it might have seemed sweet, this approach just didn't work. Indeed, if she did care for him so much, how could she let him become such a mess? It was in my opinion a display of gross negligence both in her job as a nanny and as a substitute mother figure. Anyway, even though I don't blame Russell Brand, it was just a rather weak comedy and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Why was this even made? Look I do not hate Russell Brand. It's just...why? Why is that man popular? He just acts like a sex-crazed party animal most of the time and he only appears in movies either shirtless or naked, in other words just fan-service for girls/women who are just plain desperate, crazy or both. He was so annoying in this movie and not to mention the Batman costume...he just HAD to remind us of Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin.

Unfortunately, this film didn't do it for me. I found Russell Brand's performance repetitive and irritating, and I couldn't help but think that he was trying too hard to play a 'Captain Jack Sparrow' character, but he's no Johnny Depp. Helen Mirren brought some life to the film, giving a funny and sweet performance, but overall the story was just too preposterous, with too many unlikeable characters and not enough constant laughs. There were some fun moments, but I would be hard pressed to recommend 'Arthur' to anybody else.

Entertaining enough to watch when you don't have other, much better movies to watch. Definitely not worth re-watching, ever. Russell Brand is fairly hard to listen to, with his whiny voice from start to finish, but Helen Mirren was worth watching, despite her smaller role. Jennifer Garner wasn't very good in this either, but again, for a one time watch when you have nothing better to put on, or to do....decent enough.