DVD Reviews

Arthur (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) - Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 15, 2011, 12:24 GMT

Russell Brand reinvents the role of lovable billionaire Arthur Bach, an irresponsible charmer who has always relied on two things to get by: his limitless fortune and lifelong nanny Hobson (Academy Award® winner* Helen Mirren) to keep him out of trouble. Now he faces his biggest challenge: choosing between an arranged marriage to ambitious corporate exec Susan (Jennifer Garner) that will ensure his lavish lifestyle, or an uncertain future with ...more

“He’s merely shaped like an adult.”

Russell Brand attempts to step into the inebriated shoes of Dudley Moore. The results are not 100 proof but Brand has enough of his own charm that he makes it a likeable and occasionally funny film.

Arthur Bach (Russell Brand) is the 950 million dollar man-child. His mother Vivienne (Geraldine James) has piloted the Bach Worldwide Corporation into great financial heights so that Arthur can live a life of multimillionaire leisure. So much so that she is a mother in name only with Arthur’s care being relegated to his nanny Hobson (Helen Mirren) and chauffer Bitterman (Luis Guzman).

Arthur’s expensive and destructive antics have caused Vivienne embarrassment, but when it starts to threaten the financial stability of her beloved company she presents Arthur with an ultimatum. He can marry and be controlled by Susan Johnson (Jennifer Garner) and her abrasive father Burt (Nick Nolte) or he can be cut off from all his money.

He reluctantly agrees since he cannot make it without his wealth, but then he meets the quirky Naomi Quinn (Greta Gerwig). It’s love at first sight and starts to discover that there’s more to life than money. Well, maybe a little more.

When it was announced that Russell Brand would be stepping into the shoes worn by Dudley Moore in the 1981 comedy classic, the hate machine seemed to kick into high gear and not a frame of film had been shot. I happen to like Brand’s loopy delivery but the film failed to catch fire at the box office and even worse in reviewing circles.

I’ve seen the new Arthur and I found it likeable. It certainly doesn’t make you forget the original (remakes usually never do) and sometimes feels like a shot-for-shot redo in some scenes but Brand still has a modicum of charm.

It also changes the screenplay a bit for the better (Arthur’s love interest isn’t a shoplifter) but in our troubled financial times I don’t think audiences could sympathize with a free spending, drunk billionaire when they have trouble paying the bills – even if it is a comedy.

I found the first film funnier, but it may be because coming into the remake I was familiar with the situations since not much has changed from the first film but for a few things.

If anyone was to try and step into John Gielgud’s shoes it would be Dame Helen Mirren, but her character is introduced a bit late and I didn’t get the same love/hate vibe that Gielgud put into Hobson.

Arthur is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features are in high definition and include the 11 minute “Arthur Unsupervised” behind-the-scenes, 10 minutes of additional footage, and a 1 minute gag reel. So we’re not talking a wealth of features. Disc two is a DVD/digital copy.

A weird thing happened the day after watching this remake. I kept whistling Arthur’s Theme (Best that You Can Do) [which does not get redone for the remake] and remembering Dudley and the original. I didn’t exactly hate the new one, but it never surpassed the first one.

It was cute, Brand was wacky, Mirren surly (as she should be in that role), Nolte raging (again as he should in the role), but the original rang truer. It was a forty million dollar gamble and it looks like it didn’t exactly pay off.