Arthur (1981)

As a total comedy nerd, it's pretty hard for me to find a major comedy (post 1960's, anyway) that I haven't seen. I don't know how it happened, but Arthur was one of them. It must have escaped through my fingers all through my childhood. I'm sure I would have happily watched it then, since it starred the funny elf from Santa Claus: The Movie who shared my last name.

I have been meaning to watch Arthur for a while. It wasn't the upcoming Russell Brand remake that made me interested, although it did give me the kick in the butt I needed to finally watch it.

So was it worth the wait? Yeah, it's pretty good. Lots of funny, quotable one-liners. Very sympathetic, likable characters. Lots and lots of heart. A little too much heart. Ok, it's a bit schmaltzy. Especially that theme song.

Arthur is a spoiled drunken heir to almost a billion dollars. He spends all his time drinking, picking up prostitutes, throwing money around, and embarrassing himself and his family. He is given an ultimatum: get yourself together and marry this girl, or you will be cut off from your fortune. The problem, of course, is that fate has chosen this moment to throw real love his way, in the form of Liza Minelli (I know, I don't get it either).

Dudley Moore is really funny. I knew the drunken character he played from parodies and such, but I guess I've never seen him do it himself. I was relieved that he wasn't drunk and obnoxious the whole movie, because it would have worn thin. Just three or four times, when the audience most needs it. Kind of like The Hulk.

I know I just swiped at Liza Minelli earlier, but she actually is pretty likable in this. You can see why they're a good match. He comes to her rescue after she's caught stealing a tie to give to her dad. I actually really liked her whole relationship with her dad.

The real heart and soul of the movie, though, is John Gielgud as Arthur's lifelong butler, Hobson. He genuinely cares for Arthur, since he practically raised him, and can see the sadness underpinning his misbehavior where nobody else can. He wants nothing more than for Arthur to be happy enough to pull himself together. He's also pretty funny, as the only one who can really penetrate Arthur's armored shell.

Speaking of which, I think that scene in Iron Man 2 where Tony Stark is drunk at his birthday was a little bit inspired by this movie.

Now that I've seen the original, I'm all ready to give my thoughts on the remake. I like Russell Brand, and he seems like an obvious choice for the role, but I think Will Arnett may have been a more fun choice. That may have been since he played a character pretty close to Arthur already on Running Wilde. The whole remake seems kind of unnecessary, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Maybe I'll see it in a few weeks, and I can do a proper comparison.

Overall, it's pretty schmaltzy, but the characters and the gags make up for that. My arbitrary letter grade for Arthur will be a B-.