Some Potential but Poor Execution

Read Time:2 Minute, 46 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Arthur
–

Genre: Comedy, Romance
Year Released: 1981
Runtime: 1h 37m
Director(s): Steve Gordon
Writer(s): Steve Gordon
Cast: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud
Where To Watch: HBO Max, Amazon Prime, iTunes, VUDU, Google Play, etc.

If you follow my TikTok or even Instagram, you probably know that I back up my reviews with a substantial collection of physical media. As of writing this, I have almost 3,600 unique titles on DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K Ultra HD discs. As you can imagine, I haven’t seen everything that I own with a collection this size. It’s often been my goal to start watching the ones that I haven’t seen. Starting sometime last year, I jumped into the process a few times, then last year's Oscar season hit, and I asked around for screeners of some of the harder-to-find international and documentary films. To my surprise, I received about half of what I asked for; I’ve received 100+ screeners so far. I wasn’t expecting that, and although it was a happy accident, it hindered my time spent watching my collection. This past weekend I had kind of caught up, so I decided to jump back into it, and I watched four more of my films that start with “A.” Needless to say, this may be a project I never finish!

One of the films that I watched was the 1981 classic ARTHUR. Although I’m usually a pretty big defender of DVD quality (many argue that DVD looks terrible compared to blu-ray/4k), I will say that this disc suffered greatly because of the transfer quality. I can only assume this was a transfer that wasn’t given much attention to restoration and instead just scanned and copied. I would like to think that a digital restoration of the film happened. I, unfortunately, can’t say that the streaming copies available all over would be any better.

The movie itself felt too long; at only 97 minutes, that’s saying something. Seven years later, there was a sequel that was pretty much universally panned, as was the 2011 remake with Russell Brand staring. This film just felt like something I had seen too many times, although the movie came out in 1981, so in 40 years, there has probably been a fair share of imitators that I’ve seen or films that stole bits and pieces.

It won two Academy Awards. John Gield took home Best Supporting Actor, and “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” took home Best Original Song. I feel like this is probably an issue I will run into repeatedly. While growing up, I saw and loved many classic 80s films; however, when rewatching them, they don’t always have that same magic (looking at you, ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING.)

For more reviews and my YouTube channel, please visit linktr.ee/Overlyhonestmoviereviews

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Find my social media accounts on most platforms simply by searching Overly Honest Movie Reviews.

I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please say hi or send me any questions about all things movies.