Arthur
Why remake a movie when you have nothing to add?
The excesses of Arthur played well in the sprawling early 80s when the country was flush with newfound enthusiasm, AIDS was something only gays and monkeys got and everybody drank and smoked. It caught the tail end of the old boozy Dean Martin era and meshed with the new drug-fueled excess of the Studio 54 crowd. In those days we were still willing to forgive the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
Today? Things have changed. Arthur would be forced to give a public apology, go into rehab and would be stalked by TMZ. Charlie Sheen tried to be Arthur in real life and look what that got him.
The sodden man-child just didn't play at all in this film. Besides, Dudley Moore was a much more charming Arthur than Russell Brand. Granted you didn't have Liza Minelli's outlandish schnozz and ugly mug clotting up the screen so it did have that for it.
But the idea of a hard-drinking rich boy flaunting his wealth just didn't resonate in these difficult economic times.
Brand gave some effort but wasn't really as charming or amusing as he needed to be.
The old woman failed to deliver the humor that John Gielgud brought to the caretaker role of Hobson in the original.
Greta Gerwig was shitloads better than the ugly ass Minelli of the original, but that's not saying a whole lot, really. A babboon's ass is better looking than Minelli.
Jennifer Garner continues her desperate career spiral. I used to think she was so incredibly hot and now I just want her to get the fuck off the screen as soon as possible. She was terrible, just abysmal here.
I was never convinced that Gerwig's Naomi would be remotely interested in the idiotic Arthur unless it was for the money. His character displayed no redeeming qualities whatsoever and to imagine that she would remain unattached and/or remotely interested while he floated through his lengthy voyage of self discovery is unfathomable.
In all, a rather drab and sad retelling of a story that no longer has any place in the world today.