+ Worst Movie of the Year
+ Stupidest Movie of the Year
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| The poster for Jason Winer's Arthur seem innocent enough, but ... |
Arthur is born stinking rich. He lives with his nanny Hobson and driver in a giant apartment in New York, when his unloving mother gives him an ultimatum; to commit to a forced marriage or to lose his fortune.
Arthur is, luckily, an extreme rarity as a major studio production; it is a film completely bereft of value.
The gamble here, it seems, must have been that Russell Brand's (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) exhausting personality could carry an entire film on its own. - It can't.
Instead both he and the film here is extremely strenuous to sit through. Arthur is a remake of Steve Gordon's 1981 movie of the same name with Dudley Moore in the title role, written by Peter Baynham (Hotel Transylvania (2012)) and directed by Jason Winer (Modern Family (2009-14)). It is obvious just minutes into the film that it has no real content besides fluff and puff about a pampered billionaire without connection to reality.
Everyone besides Brand, who is kind of excused because a wealth of people must have propped him up to do this, (the starry cast also includes Helen Mirren (The Queen (2006)), Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha (2012)), Jennifer Garner (Juno (2007)), Luis Guzmán (Carlito's Way (1993)) and Nick Nolte (The Thin Red Line (1998))), should have known better than to accept as tasteless, dumb material as Arthur. The film is, simply put, formulaic and cringe-worthily poor, uninspired on all levels.
Arthur is also large and expensive to boot, a truly great waste of money and human energy. Tonally, it splats out across several chairs: Light, breezy fantasy-comedy/raunchy comedy/indie-feel/New York quirk ... None of it works for it. - Arthur is a Hollywood-constructed eyesore of dimensions.
Brand has had a down period since Diablo Cody's very low-rated Paradise (2013), but is set to make a comeback in funny-sounding Nicholas Cage-starring comedy Army of One (2016).
Related posts:
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
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| Yes. Jason Winer makes Helen Mirren wear this outfit for his movie Arthur |
Not only is the trailer for Arthur long like it'll never end ... even worse, characteristically tastelessly, it uses David Bowie's Rebel Rebel to promote itself
Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 45.7 mil. $
= Big flop
[Perhaps the most uplifting thing about Arthur is that it was poorly received by critics and audiences alike and bombed commercially. It was nominated for Razzie Awards for Worst Actor (Brand) and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel. It made 32.8 mil. $ (72 % of its total gross) in the US and a big chunk of the rest of its gross (3 mil. £) in Brand's native UK.]
What do you think of Arthur?
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