A drunken playboy stands to lose a wealthy inheritance when he falls for a woman his family doesn't like.
The 21st-century Arthur is diluted enough to begin with, and these watered-down ingredients make for a thin, insipid and oddly flavourless brew. Drink it responsibly. Better yet, don't drink it at all.
The problem is that while Arthur is caught between the moon and New York City, the rest of us are left thinking, "Is that the best that a remake can do?"
Love Brand? Then you’ll forgive his absent performance within a mediocre rom-com. Hate him? Arthur is an endurance – like being the only sober person among pissed people.
Brand fan? You'll likely enjoy his antics. But Russellophobics would be better off seeking out the original.
Brand and Mirren together...make an appealing double act. While no Gielgud and Moore, they get by. The truth on a silver platter is that the same can’t be said of Winer’s film as a whole.
A bad idea all round.
Arthur was no great shakes first time around; this Brand-new version is a full-on stinker.
Warming with some great one-liners.
Russell Brand's new vehicle fails to play to his strengths, it has none of the original's charm and the script is so awful only Helen Mirren scrapes by with dignity intact.
The biggest sin is that Arthur, who was such a soulful, delightful, oddly life-affirming character when played by Dudley Moore, is here merely a boring drunk. Where’s the fun in that?
It took all of cuddly Dudley's little-boy-lost innocence to make his Arthur palatable, so it might not have been such a wise move to cast the most self-aware and debauched comedian of his generation in the part.
As bad as anything I've seen in 2011 which is shaping up as "The International Year of Bad Comedy".
Just how much you enjoy Arthur is going to depend on your tolerance of Brand. He's still funny but his performance is one-note, in the same way Ricky Gervais plays the same part in every movie.
Arthur 2011 changes very little from the original but softens and sanitises everything to the point of blandness.
Really rather entertaining, with some decent punchlines inserted into mostly new scenarios and lines that allows the movie to stand fairly successfully as its own entity.
It's all over for the Brand brand.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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