Arthur, a Russell Brand-powered remake of the film about a drunken billionaire man-child, fails miserably at recapturing its predecessor’s magic:
- It’s a “grim load of mediocrity,” writes AO Scott, “made according to a lazy and cynical commercial blueprint” of Brand's “patented shtick,” “contrived, semi-naughty comic set pieces,” and sentimentality, he notes in the New York Times. “Never have I needed a drink so badly.”