ARTHUR (2011)

Arthur stars Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, Greta Gerwig and Jennifer Garner. Directed by Jason Winer. Rated PG-13 with a running time of 1 hour and 50 mins. Studio: Warner Bros.

Arthur (Brand) is a rich, lazy man-child who is always getting into trouble in New York City. He always has his reliable nanny Hobson (Mirren) to bail him out. After his latest crazy antics his mother is sick of it and offers him a deal: marry a woman he hates (Garner) but whom his mother adores or he will lose all of his money. Things get complicated when he begins to fall for free spirited Naomi (Gerwig). Boy we have never heard of this plot before.........

I ask for one thing from a comedy: just make me laugh. Thats all I ask, but Arthur failed in that category. Russell Brand is doing his usual shtick but its not as funny as in Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Get Him to the Greek because he is being toned down into a PG-13 comedy. I believe I chuckled one and a half times. Yeah it was that bad. Brand just came off as annoying and he was spitting out his dialogue sounding like a 50 year old British woman. Jennifer Garner was also very annoying and not funny.

The only two decent parts of the movie were Helen Mirren and Greta Gerwig. Mirren was delightful as the woman who basically raised Arthur and there were some touching scenes with her. Gerwig was also sweet and cute as the free spirited woman who catches Arthur's eye.

Other than those two actresses Arthur fails big time as a comedy. Its a shame that hollywood keeps remaking movies and can't even summon up an original idea for a comedy. Arthur is a sad excuse for a comedy.

D+