Review of Arthur (2011) by Kevin G — 18 Aug 2011

It's abundantly clear that the reason this remake works so well is because it has Russell Brand. Seeing him in anything is normally bound to be an entertaining experience. However, compared to the direction and aesthetics of the original, it feels really manufactured.

It's saving grace is that Brand is allowed free reign to do crazy shit. In fact, it really is a perfect part for him with his witty delivery and endless energy. He gets to say whatever he likes, do whatever he likes.

Not that he doesn't normally get to do that in most of his roles anyway, but the fact that he literally goes out of his way to act like a fool and embarrass people makes it that much more fun to watch.

I also really like Greta Gerwig and find what few moments she gets to be in are some of the best in the whole movie. She's just so charmingly honest and likable, it just continues to prove how great she is.

Helen Mirren is also really good and generally so is the rest of the cast. Mostly, what I really like about this is how far they made Arthur's antics go. His running around in the Joel Schumacher, nipple version of the Batman costume with Batmobile and his insane bidding of enormous amounts of money on priceless historical artifacts at auctions that he doesn't care about at all, make this a truly enjoyable reassembling of the concept.

Though it does feel kinda lame and contrived that it makes a serious issue out of his alcoholism, while the previous one pretty much just embraced it, it's nice to see a slightly different spin. But, most of these changes would mean absolutely nothing if it wasn't for Russell Brand's ability to rattle off funny dialogue like no one else.

From what I can tell it really molds the pacing for the movie and fiercely pushes everyone else to keep up. In the end, though it may be there's really no definitive reason for it to exist, borne from within it is a really great new interpretation on the character from Brand that makes the movie memorable.

It just further proves how talented he is and how you literally can put him together with any group of actors and he'll just easily make it enormously funny.