Movie Review: Arthur

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A few months shy of the 30th anniversary release date of the original, we get the remake of Arthur. The original starring Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli and Sir John Gielgood went on to become an award winning American classic. The updated version has Russel Brand, Greta Gerwig and Helen Mirren taking on the same main roles. This time around, awards will probably not be given to this version. Does that mean that it's a bad movie? No, it just means that once again the original remains the better version.

Russel Brand as Arthur brings that drunken swagger that we've seen from him as Aldus Snow in Get Him to the Greek. There was a certain point in the wealthy man-boy where he flirted with being totally annoying as I find Will Ferrell when Ferrell does his version on man-boy, but Brand remained just far enough away in the first hour of the film's 110 minutes to make it bearable. The latter half of the movie as he makes the transition of boy to man is when he really settles into the role and became enjoyable to watch.

In the gender swapping role of Hobson, Mirren comes in to protect the man-boy from his partying playboy ways as the nanny. She delivers her lines well. The self-assuredness as she confronts one women to safeguard Arthur from both himself and her is spot on; but for me it was when she put on the Darth Vader mask and repeats a couple of statements from Arthur that got my biggest laugh.

Gerwig is the love interest of Naomi, an illegal tour guide whom Arthur runs into and starts to fall in love. Unfortunately, mommy has forced Arthur into an agreement to marry Susan (Jennifer Gardner) in order to protect the Bach family business and fortunes or by rejecting the arranged marriage to be cut off from a bank account that's just a tad shy of a billion dollars. That's a lot of cheese that Arthur just won't do without.

The one part of Arthur's lavish lifestyle that surprised me as they updated the film to make it more contemporary is that Arthur remained a womanizing drunk and not a womanizing drug addict. You would have thought in today's world that cocaine, meth or ecstasy would have shown up in the movie. They really didn't but it was rated PG-13 for alcohol use throughout, sexual content, language and some drug references.

The basic story line remains with a couple of gender role twists. But at the core of the movie is that it's supposed to be a romantic comedy. Does it deliver in that space? For the most part yes. It was also fun to see how a super rich person would squander some of their money with the gaudy and garish apartment fixtures like a operating solar system model night light or a floating magnetic bed. Or what about buying that sweet ride and its accessories. Many fan boys would love to have the most memorable of the Batman suits, you know, the one Val Kilmer wore in Batman Forever and the accompanying Batmobile. Or what about customized PEZ dispensers. For some people that would be right up there with lavish expenditures! We can dream can't we!

Back in 1981, Christopher Cross co-wrote and sung Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do) which won the Academy Award for Best Music - Original Song. It is reprised in the new version of the film by Fitz and the Tantrums playing over a fun to watch closing credits. If you go in with tempered expectations, you'll come out with a smile on your face.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: RED

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This weekend has a lot of choices, at least for me. The Hawaii International Film Festival is this weekend running thru October 24, 2010. They are celebrating 30 years of motion pictures with almost 250 movies to choose from during the Fall showcase. I'm doing a number of volunteer shifts working at the theater and in Waikiki at the hospitality suite so I'm not sure what I'll have time to see with my vouchers. If you're reading this and you're in Hawaii, HIFF could always use more help, check out www.hiff.org and look under GET INVOLVED and then volunteer at HIFF. In the mean time the general releases this week consisted of two offerings: Jackass 3D and RED. Since I generally don't do 3D and I didn't watch Jackass on MTV, I was left with just one selection: RED.

Now you're probably wondering why the name RED is in all caps and not proper case with a capital R and lower case e-d. That's because it's an acronym meaning Retired, Extremely Dangerous. The name is very appropriate. Right off the bat we meet Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) and we can see that he is leading a very boring life. It's around Christmas time and the whole neighborhood is all decked out expect for his house. The one spice in his life seems to be conversations with Sarah Ross (Mary Louise Parker) who he talks to repeatedly after making up excuses to call her at the US Government Pension Services Office in Kansas City. So there is the retired in RED.

While walking to the bathroom in his own house at 4am he's attacked by three men dressed in black. He very swiftly and deftly takes them out without breaking a sweat and barely messing up his house coat. More guys show up and he dispatches them in short order. Extremely Dangerous needs to be explained no further after seeing this. By this time you know that the movie is going to be over the top with action. His home is riddled with bullets punching so many holes in the wood that even a block of Swiss cheese would have more material in it than what was left of Frank's house siding. With that level of intense action sequence in the movie and some brief strong language the movie earned a PG-13 rating.

So starts Frank's adventure. He realizes that someone from inside the CIA is out to kill him. He also realizes that the interest of his attention, Sarah, could be in danger. Let the road movie began! With postcards flashing on the screen showing us where Frank is going he goes to get Sarah and then to old and also retired black op friends Joe, Marvin and Victoria (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren) to solve the mystery of why he's trying to be taken out. With the gang along we now have the buddy movie.

As already mentioned the action was over the top with bullets, bazookas and bomb blasts. Each of our agents with unyielding and resolute calmness approach the mission stages with a mischievousness joy and delight as they get back into the game after being retired for so long. This is what they were born to do and know that they are good doing it. The level of comedy was unexpected but thoroughly enjoyed. You know you got a good one when the people in the movie make noise, cheer and yell "OH Snap" at the action on the screen.

They have some great characters to build upon if they decide to do a sequel, but they better move quickly. Of the main characters, Willis is the youngest at 55 with Malkovich at 57 and Freeman at 73. And I must say at 65, Helen Mirren still looks great and in the white gown used in the movie, very shapely and sexy. The run time of 111 minutes kept my attention and according to some tweets and Facebook posts that I've seen appeared to have kept other peoples attention as well! This was a very well done popcorn chomping action flick!

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.