Arthur

Title: Arthur

Director: Jason Winer

Format: DVD

Genre: Comedy

Rating: PG-13

Starring: Russel Brand, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Nick Nolte

Arthur Bach is a screw-up. He's been raised with more money than he can imagine and no one has ever told him no. He does what he wants when he wants and the newspapers and tabloids love to exploit his outrageous behavior.

One particular fun evening while out in the Bat Mobile (yes, the Bat Mobile) he gets into a bit of an accident and gets arrested. Did I mention that he was drunk? That he is always drunk? Yup. he keeps vodka in his water bottle.

Arthur's mother is a savvy, high corporate business woman who runs the multi-million dollar  family business that keeps so much cash in his pocket. It seems that Arthur's latest stunt has got all the investors in the business worried that the company is doomed because the end of the family line is with Arthur. If Arthur is passed the company then it will fail and millions upon millions will be lost.

So his mother sends for him, basically makes an appointment, for him to come to her office and she gives him an ultimatum. He can either marry a woman he doesn't love (Susan) and keep the 950 million he likes to spend or he is cut off. Why Susan? Because she's responsible, she's a good candidate to keep him in line and most importantly she is a savvy business woman who can run the company and have the family name.

So Arthur is in quite a pickle. He doesn't want to marry someone he doesn't love but he doesn't know how to live without all that money. He has no job skills and no life skills.

So what on earth will he do?

I have heard that this movie is a remake of an old movie but I have no idea if that's true. I am not familiar with another movie called Arthur from back in the day. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I turned on this movie – okay I thought it was going to be stupid. It's one of those comedies where the actor does stupid things and such (kind of like an Adam Sandler movie) and sometimes that humor is lost on me. There were a lot of stupid-funny parts in this movie and I'll be honest I laughed at most of them.

But you know what? There was some depth to this movie too, a real story line underneath all the humor and fun. And that is why I liked this movie.

Russel Brand is a good actor. Sure he plays a spoiled rich thirty- year-old who still acts like he's six but it takes talent to act like that and even more talent to let the viewer see hints that there is a lot more to him than face value. The character he played had a lot of facets to him who grew and changed throughout the movie. He wasn't the same guy at the end of the movie that he was at the beginning. Isn't that one of the things that makes a good movie – starting at point A and ending somewhere else, like point C?

Arthur and Hobson's relationship is what I liked best about this movie. In the movie Arthur's mom doesn't have time to be a mother so she hired him a Nanny (Hobson) when he was a small boy – a nanny that still takes care of him at the age of thirty. At first you get the impression that she only puts up with his crazy behavior because she gets paid to do it but then we see that she actually loves him – and that he loves her. She is actually more of a mother to him than his own mother – so much so that he has her programmed into his phone as "Mom". Their relationship was the one thing in Arthur's life for many years that was actually real. Sure, it appeared that he needed her (and for some things he really did – he was horrible in the kitchen!) but I think that really he just wanted her around; she was his friend – his best friend.

During the movie Arthur meets a girl – a writer – who lives in the blue collar district and has to work hard for the tiny apartment that she shares with her father. Arthur likes her – she's real and warm and she genuinely likes him. She makes a good love interest for him because she is down to earth where he is not but she is able to look past his immaturity to see the real him. It is his relationship with her and also his relationship with Hobson that are the true catalysts for his change.  

Arthur takes a few hard knocks in the movie and I never feel sorry for him – I admire the way he picks himself up and tries to move on. Granted a lot of attempts are very funny and unsuccessful.

The setting of the movie is something I really liked as well. It is set in New York City and he has this huge building that he lives in that includes a floating bed and a mini theater that plays Looney Tunes all day, every day. He has every cool car ever made, including the Bat Mobile and the car from Back to the Future. There is also the orange Challenger from Dukes of Hazard (my personal favorite car). At one point her rents out Grand Central Station and that is cool too.

This movie is a comedy, but it has substance to it. I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves a good laugh but doesn't like to feel like they lost brain cells after watching it. So go forth and watch this movie and have a good time.

So there you have it. My opinion.

This review is written by Cambria Hebert