Arthur (2011) - Frenzied, colossal egotrip remake, irredeemable DOA

ZERO

+ Worst Movie of the Year
+ Stupidest Movie of the Year

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). 

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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
 

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?

Cleaner (2008, video) or, Suit-Wearing Papa Cleaner-Man!

♥♥♥

One of the dark posters for Renny Harlin's Cleaner

QUICK REVIEW:

An ex-cop runs a cleaning company, which specializes in cleaning after deaths. He now takes an assignment to clean up after a murder that makes him start his own private investigation. - But his own past isn't spotless either ...

The excellent cast of Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained (2012)), Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)), Ed Harris (A History of Violence (2005)), Eva Mendes (The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)) and Luis Guzmán (The Last Stand (2013)) make this mediocre story worth seeing.
It is directed by Finnish Hollywood director Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea (1999)) and written by Matthew Aldrich (El Patron (2016), pre-production). Some of Harlin's flash-editing ploys hit home, and others seem ridiculous.
Cleaner seems like commissioned work without any particular heart or engagement behind its storytelling, (which is a recurring problem for Harlin, whose career counts several films with similar issues.)
The ending SPOILER has a forced narration with lots of heavy-duty value concepts overlain, which Cleaner as a film just can't hold.
Harlin is premiering an ambitious new film later this year, Skiptrace with Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville, which I am sure it is hoped can become a cross-cultural (US-Chinese) smash.

Related posts:

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
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Watch the trailer for the DVD release here

Cost: Estimated 25 mil. $
Box office: 4 mil. $ (foreign)
= Mega-flop
[Cleaner was released straight-to-DVD in the US, where it sold 400k units, accruing 7.8 mil. $ to the financial shipwreck the movie became. Harlin's career has suffered, and he has had to get by doing b-movies and TV since. Skiptrace is the major movie that has to prove his worth in the new Hollywood order, or perhaps cast him out for good.]

What do you think of Cleaner?
Any thoughts on Harlin's career?

Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year 

The murky poster for Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way

QUICK REVIEW:

Another strong film about Latino gangsters from Brian De Palma (Carrie (1976)).
This time in New York with a sympathetic protagonist, unlike in De Palma's celebrated Scarface (1983), and I regard Carlito's Way the better film by far, though most hold the bombastic '83 remake of Scarface (1932) in higher esteem.
The plot in a nutshell: Carlito wants to get out of crime, but owes his lawyer a service and gets fucked by him.

 

Al Pacino as Carlito Brigante in Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way

That is the main story here. It is an adaptation of two novels by Judge Edwin Torres.
Al Pacino (Heat (1995)) is superb; Sean Penn (Milk (2008)) is splendid as the disgusting, coke-imbibing, Jewish lawyer, but Penelope Ann Miller (Chaplin (1992)) doesn't seem quite strong enough to suit the film and her co-stars, - but was Golden Globe nominated for her effort, along with Penn anyway.
There are a few banal moments, but they can't change the fact that Carlito's Way is an extremely well-executed film. De Palma and great screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park (1993)) are highly intelligent film crafts artists, and structurally the film is very sound. It has good supporting roles as well, and an exciting finale chase.

 

Related post:

 

1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Sean Penn as the lawyer-from-hell, Al Pacino by his side, and James Rebhorn as the DA sending them a menacing look, in Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 63.8 mil. $
= Even Steven

What do you think of Carlito's Way?

The Last Stand (2013) - Arnold's entertaining action comeback

♥♥♥♥
+ Best Comeback of the Year: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger defends the home front with Johnny Knoxville at his side on this humorous poster for Kim Jee-Woon's The Last Stand

The boss of a Mexican drug cartel escapes during a prison transfer in the US and heads South through the country in a modified sports car, leaving behind him a trail of death and destruction. But to cross the border, he will have to go through the small town Sommerton Junction...

 
The Last Stand is written by Andrew Knauer (Castle Falls (2021)) and directed by great South-Korean filmmaker Jee-woon Kim (Choyonghan kajok (1998)).

Despite a weak FBI-centered sub-plot led by the talented Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland (2006)), The Last Stand works outstandingly as Arnold Schwarzenegger's  (Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)) return to the big screen after his years as governor of California in his first lead since the good Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).
The film offers lots of fun as puns on western movie mythology and the lone gunman-cliché abound. It has all the self-irony that the comeback of the now 66 year-old action hero has to have. And which has been a trademark throughout his long, unique career.
The ending of the film has a visual effect, which looks a bit grotesque, but it doesn't change the fact that The Last Stand is a pretty excellent comeback for Arnold and a solid action comedy filled with fun and excitement and a good supporting cast of whom especially Luis Guzmán (Carlito's Way (1993)) and Peter Stormare (The Big Lebowski (1998)) are amusing and effective.

 

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2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
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I Saw the Devil/악마를 보았다/惡魔를 보았다 (Agmareul boatda) (2010) or, Cat and Mouse - Korean Style 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Budget: 45 mil. $
Box office: 48.3 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 1.07 times its cost)

[The Last Stand was released 12 January (Hong Kong, USA) and runs 105 minutes. Schwarzenegger was reportedly paid 5 mil. $ + 25 % of first dollar gross, which, if it pertains to the film's world gross, would mean that it netted him just over 17 mil. $, despite flopping badly. Shooting took place from October 2011 - February 2012 in New Mexico. General Motors reportedly supplied 14 vehicles for the film, getting two of them back in good shape after the shoot. The film opened #9 to a 6.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America where it stalled from then, grossing 12 mil. $ (24.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 7.7 mil. $ (15.9 %) and Japan with 2.8 mil. $ (5.8 %). Kim returned with One Perfect Day (2013, video), The X (2013, short) and theatrically with The Age of Shadows/Mil-jeong (2016). Schwarzenegger returned in Escape Plan (2013); Johnny Knoxville (Nature Calls (2012)) in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013). The Last Stand is fresh at 61 % with a 5.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Last Stand?