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Just how badly did Arthur bomb at the box office this weekend? To the tune of a mere $12.6 million, which landed the remake at a very distant second place behind Hop, which scored $21.7 million in the second week of its theater run. Yes, both films star Russell Brand, but (aside from a cameo) he’s only heard but not seen in the latter film, wherein he voices the Easter Bunny. His presence meant very little to the success of Hop, and I’d bet that the vast majority of viewers neither knew nor cared who Brand is; and the disappointing returns of Arthur would confirm that U.S. audiences don’t register him as a leading man at all.
Admittedly, I’ve got a love-hate relationship with Russell Brand. On one hand, I find him rather amusing in certain late-night capacities, such as his explanation of monarchy and the royal wedding on a recent Conan O’Brien episode. However, when the subject arises of Brand attempting to break into the U.S. mainstream, I’m reminded of the fact that he was sacked by MTV UK for dressing up as Osama bin Laden on September 21, 2001. To be fair, the guy was doing heroin at the time and has since cleaned up his act quite a bit, but the fact remains that he doesn’t fit neatly within mainstream American sensibilities. For certain, most critics turned up their noses at the Arthur remake, with the movie scoring a mere 25% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Now, Time has already begun to celebrate the cinematic end of Brand:
Can we stop thinking about Russell Brand now? Britain’s bad-boy comic, who scored a vocal hit last week as the teen bunny in Hop, looked to parlay his animated success by starring in a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy Arthur. But audiences decided they’d rather hear Brand than see him. The holdover Hop, which dropped 42% from last weekend’s winning tally, won the battle of the Brands. Its $21.7 million earned it the top spot in North American theaters, according to early studio estimates, while Arthur grossed just $12.6 million, well below expectations, in its opening frame. Total theatrical revenue was down about 6% from the same weekend last year, with box-office earnings still running a parlous 30% below 2010′s.
Hop and Arthur were supposed to be the one-two punch that would transform Brand — known to American audiences for a supporting role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a co-star turn in Get Him to the Greek and his husbanding of Katy Perry — into the next bankable comedy phenom. Here was the ideal match of new star and old property, with the ex-druggie Brand as the dipsomaniacal playboy whom Moore had made both famous and endearing. Instead of pruney John Gielgud as Arthur’s veddy proper valet, Brand had Oscar- and Emmy-winner Helen Mirren; it was the two stars’ first picture together since their (SARCASM ALERT) plangently poetic teaming last year in Julie Taymor’s take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest (total worldwide gross: $302,110). Arthur made no happier impression than did Mirren’s hosting gig on last night’s lackluster and lack-laugh episode of Saturday Night Live. Even British dames — and dudes — can get slapped with the wet sock of failure.
[From Time]
To be certain, this is a huge (and possibly fatal) blow to Brand’s budding fim career. In the grand scheme of things, Arthur means very little to Helen Mirren’s well-established career, and Jennifer Garner still has that ridiculous Mrs. Marple reboot franchise to fall back upon. If Brand fails to score any more plum leading-man roles, I could see his marriage to Katy Perry falling into even more dangerous territory than its current tenuous state. After all, Katy Perry is a self-declared superstar and would never stay married to anyone less worthy, and as much as Kaiser would love to see Brand’s hands and mouth all over Helen Mirren in a remake of Arthur 2: On The Rocks, it shall never happen in a sequel. But behind closed doors, who knows?
Written by Bedhead
Posted in Jennifer Garner, Katy Perry, Russell Brand
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77 Responses to “Arthur bombs at the box office, is Russell Brand over?”
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God I hope so. He is a very unattractive and unfunny man, poor Katie, what WAS SHE THINKING?
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As much as I love Russell Brand what made him think he could ever top Dudley Moore’s Arthur??? Anyone who remembers the first film knows that’s blasphemy.
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Jesus, he’s all gums.
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I too feel the love/hate. Sometimes he is quite funny, other times I wanna slap his creepy smug face.
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He is unattractive- well, he is not classically handsome. And his role in Arthur…he’s hard to look at, right? And his humor is just too hit or miss.
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I want to see Arthur but I’m not sitting in a movie theatre to do it. I’m a big Brand fan, I hope he sticks around or at the very least is still accessible for years to come.
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Shame, I feel sorry for him.
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I think Russell Brand is hilarious doing stand-up and I loved his book, but have never enjoyed seeing him in a movie. I thought he was terrible in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and couldn’t even make it all the way through Get Him To The Greek. He’s not the first comedian to have this problem. Hopefully he’ll cut his losses and go back to basics. I’m skipping Arthur, Dame Helen notwithstanding.
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no, it’s YOUR HIGHNESS who is a big major bomb in the box office because Russel Brand is not famous whereas in YOUR HIGHNESS,there is McBride(who? ),Portman&Franco
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Brand strikes me as an “also ran” comedian. I was never a big fan of Jim Carrey but his physical comedy was sufficiently aside from Jerry Lewis that he developed a big following until his audience “out grew” him. Brand doesn’t seem to have that potential.
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“I’ll announce it to the media”
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You can’t improve on a classic, and Russel was so different from Dudley, and not as talented.
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It was a lameish, of its time film to begin with, why anyone thought it was worth a sequel, let alone a remake, is beyond me.
I like Russell, he’s intelligent and articulate and interesting, and can be really funny, but agree with Trillion, he just doesn’t cut it as an actor.
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I thought the movie was fun and cute. I did not expect it to bomb
He and Helen Mirren should date…their chemistry is off the hook!
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Remakes rarely work unless many many years have passed and no one living remembers the great work of the original actors. Anyway, Hollywood seems to be really digging for ideas these days. TV sucks and movies are running the same themes over and over again.
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I haven’t ever seen or heard anything that R.Brand has done, Unfortunately when I see a pic of him he has the kind of face, well, I just want to smack him, and I am not a violent/abusive type of person. I will not watch the “new” Arthur for as far as I am concerned the original was superb, nothing and no-one can beat Dudley, John and Liza
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Was Russell Brand ever a thing?
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Love my bf Russell! Not a fan of the type of movie Arthur represents.
Maybe RB should do the type of comedy that Hugh Grant does, a tad more subtle, playing on the stodgy Brit humor and accent.
He is very funny, smart and a cutey patootie!
go Russell go!
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This was a horrible movie! I couldnt wait for it to be over.
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When I first saw him at the VMAs a few years ago, I thought “Here’s another Brit import that TPTB are going to cram down our throats whether we want him or not.” Hopefully he’ll crawl back under his rock now; but I doubt it.
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It is too early to say. When the dvd sales report are out that will tell his future
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I don’t know how having the number one and two movies at the box office can mean he is over. So Arthur didn’t rake in the dough, it still made more than the 3,4,5th movies at the box office.
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i like him on his howard appearances and thought he was hilarious in ‘sarah marshall’ & ‘get him to the greek’, but those had equally funny supporting cast all throughout each flick. perhaps he’s just meant to be a funny co-star and not a leading man. i dunno.
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People mag gave it 3 out of 4 stars? Maybe I disregard that… nevertheless I have a friend who’s dying to see it and I’m a little curious. I know it won’t live up to the original but I’m going to try and put that out of my mind and watch it as a “new” one.
I don’t think it’s the end of his Hollywood movie career. He may not get a shot at a high profile leading man role for a while but he’ll continue to get work.
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I like R. Brand, although he can be a little smugly annoying when he’s not comfortable and trying too hard. His stand up is the best. I liked FSM and GHTTG However, I knew remaking Arthur was not going to be a good idea. Hopefully it will do okay in the long run or in Europe.
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I have never liked him, even a little bit. I have always found him to be creepy and annoying.
That being said, I went to the movies yesterday and they had an extended trailer for “Arthur.” I have to grudgingly admit that it actually does look funny. Not funny enough that I’ll see it in a theater, but funny enough that I might just watch it when it comes out on Netflix.
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2 hours is too much Russell trying to play someone else. He really is only good at being Russell. Supporting roles are plenty.
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I actually want to see this one but I doubt it will compare to the original.
I love Dudley Moore and doubt he’ll give it the same flare he did but Ill give it a shot.
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How exactly do they measure success? Reminds me of the times when a student brings home a final grade of 96 per cent and his asshole parents destroy him because it wasn’t 97 per cent. I’m not following his career, so I don’t know if he’s any good, but declaring a person ‘over’ one day after his first starring (live action) role doesn’t go over like gangbusters just seems kind of dumb. From what I saw of the trailer, the presence of Jennifer Garner embarrassing herself yet again was honestly a bigger repellent than anything else I saw on this thing. And as all that glitters is not gold, all movies that are ‘old’ are not classics, i.e., this wasn’t a film that needed to be remade, or made for that matter.
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I think another problem was that there was 2 more movies that premiered at that time. Now I’m not saying it as an excuse. But first like was said, Hop was out (that’s a hard time beating a kids movie right there). And then you had Hanna and Your Highness, as well as last weeks Insidious, which has been getting word of mouth viewings. I haven’t see Authur yet to see if he can be a leading man. Brand was funny in Get Him to the Greek. So maybe it has to be THAT kind of movie for him to prevail. It’s not the last we’ve seen of him. I do actually enjoy Brand. So I’m curious what he will do next. I’m sure it’s another type cast movie. But you never know he could pull a dramatic roll. There have been some off the wall comediens who have pulled off a dramatic roll better than a comedy.
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Russell desperately needs to go back to wearing facial hair to balance out his look – his facial structure is just so severe w/o it – it’s almost hard to look at him. I think he’s talented and has something to offer – we’ll see!
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Good. Now will he please go away. Too bad for Helen Mirren, though.
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Good gugga mugga! I just watched clips and the trailer! WHY? What on earth were people thinking? This looks like a rubbish movie. I’m so sad for Jennifer Garner. Is she that desperate? Is the economic situation hitting her that hard. Now I WOULDN’T be surprised if some divorce rumor comes up because I’d easily believe she did this so she could gear up to pay for it! Anyway, how and why did Katy Perry marry this man? What interesting tastes she has! Does he ALWAYS sound like this or is this just his “Arthur” voice? I sincerely hope its the latter.
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@16: I’m with you, moon…
He may very well be funny (or not), but I always feel like I have to take a shower after looking at him. I don’t think I could stand it for 90 straight minutes
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For any of you who are fans of British humor, buy a DVD called “Beyond the Fringe”. It’s Dudley Moore’s early days as part of a geius comedy 4-man team. They pre-date Monty Python, and are as funny if not more, only sharper.
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@Ally I have to check that out I love British humor
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I think nowadays we rush too quickly to call something/ or someone a failure. The days of taking time to find one’s niche and cultivate one’s self is over.
I’m not a fan of Russell Brand nor do I hate him. I just think that the media is taking this too extremes. Box office success in America isn’t the end all or be all anymore. For all we know this movie could blow up in the European and Asian makets, completely recouping it’s production cost and make bank.
The media is too reactionary for me to take them seriously anymore. It’s as if the minute a movie isn’t a smash hit all the media outlets jump at the chance to be the first one’s to make snarky comments and label something/someone as being over.
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This says more about Garner than Brand who is new to the scene in a sense and learning the ropes. She is the only “recognizable” American “star” and everyone else isn’t none to say 18-49 yr olds.
She isn’t bankable and he has the potential to be or to make a decent career.
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First, he does everything every other “mainstream” celeb does to push his product so he’s completely mainstream despite his affectations otherwise; More importantly, he’s just not funny – the best comics were astute observers of the human condition and it’s foibles, this guy, like too many young comics, is too self-centered, shallow and smug to find humor in the obvious and the commonplace – has he never listened to the greats from, say, the 70s, way too much shallow “edginess” and not enough genuine humor.WOnder how popular he is with the college crowd?
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It’s “I’ll alert the media”, but anyway…
I think remaking Arthur was doomed from the get-go. That movie was pure magic. Any flick that can make the line “Peanuts!” funny, that’s a tough one to top. They should’ve left well enough alone.
Russell seems kind of a sweetie. I hope he finds his niche. I’d take 4000 Russells over one Charlie Sheen anyday.
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Everyone knows that remakes are a bust. They will never be as good as the originals.
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Americans don’t have to love him, who cares for them ? I don’t like American comedians or shows, and they just show what poor taste Americans have (NOT ALL OF COURSE!!!)
Come back to Europe Russell ! =)
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The original Arthur is one of my favorite movies and the cast was wonderful. It has some of the greatest one-liners of all time. Why does Hollywood insist on continually trying to remake movies? They very rarely get it right. And Russell Brand as a male lead in a Rom-com? I don’t think so!
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I liked Russell Brand in the Sarah Marshell movie, but I still can’t warm up to him outside of that. There are moments of hilarity, but not enough. And he’s probably one of the strangest looking guys I’ve ever seen…which doesn’t help.
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@nanster ITA that there is no way that RB could top his portrayal of Arthur but, uhm do you remember what Dudley Moore looked like???
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Hollywood just needs to stop with all the remakes. Russell Brand can be hilarious but most people old enough to have seen Arthur with Dudley Moore wouldn’t want to pay today’s ticket prices to see it remade with anyone. It was a great original movie but you know the story you know the outcome. I think Hollywood needs to focus on fresh original stories, that’s what people want to see.
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Sorry…. But, I love him, he’s hilarious.
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Russell Brand comes across as a complete creep: woefully unfunny, terribly unattractive, and less than one-tenth as clever as he apparently believes himself to be. Go away and leave us alone, please.
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What tripe this non-story is. Russell Brand is the best import from Britain since tea and biscuits. His humor is intelligent but of course the American public wouldn’t understand since they are so damn dumb. As for Arthur, maybe they shouldn’t have remade a classic. Why wasn’t Bo Derek offered a role, maybe that could have helped.
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I think it’s unfortunate that he ever left Britain and showed up here in all his monstrous unattractiveness. What century is he in with all that stringy, unwashed-looking hair. What in hell is his claim to fame to begin with? Did he ever do stand-up here? Are we supposed to know he’s a funny person? How? He’s so over-exposed he should be embarrassed about his whole situation. And then there’s her.
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The success or failure of a movie these days has more to do with the story than the actor, remakes need to be done really well to work and this one from the start looked unfunny and stupid.
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It’s Miss Marple.
And I have no idea how they landed on Jennifer Garner for that. Why remake something if you’ve obviously never seen or read it? I wonder if they even know it’s a mystery solving character. It will probably become a romcom.
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He is odd looking but I love him. My Booky Wooky was a fun read. I agree that he should grow in the facial hair again. It softens his face. As long as he doesn’t do the Snooki bump again.
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I actually can’t stand the guy but I’d watch this movie if it was on Tv…no prob. Looks entertaining enough. And kinda funny
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I think the previews just looked really stupid, and like all the “rich guy” stuff would be utterly cartoonish and over the top (as if so often is when wealthy people are portrayed in the movies. Ditto for really poor people, they’re almost invariably portrayed as living in dark squalor.) Russell Brand makes me laugh when I see him on things, but this didn’t appeal at all.
Also I couldn’t help but think of the late Dudley Moore, of course. Now if the original Arthur were to run on TV, it’s kind of eerie, because Dudley M. contracted a disease that produced symptoms similar to what his character acted like when drunk. Really sad, and it killed him at a relatively young age.
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Arthur was cute, I don’t get the hate.
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I just don’t get this guy’s appeal at all. To me he looks like the product of a one night stand between Tiny Tim and Tim Burton. I’ve yet to see anything even remotely entertaining coming from him.
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He’s in the US because he burnt all his bridges being a disgusting, offensive pig in the UK. What an insult to the legacy of the incredibly talented Dudley Moore.
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I’ve heard really good things about Greta Gerwig in this movie (and even Russell) but none of the rave reviews for Jennifer Garner. I wonder if she feels outshined?
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Unattractive, sleazy loking, unfunny and 1 dimensional acting. How he gets any movie roles is beyond me.
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@Candy: Um…because Bo Derrick was in the Dudley Moore movie ’10′ and not in the original ‘Arthur’? I hope your comment was meant as a sarcastic one… Crass generalizations regarding an entire nation’s intellect are not only cheap and tacky, but make the one issuing them look even worse than their intended target.
I really hope your post was a ‘joke’…
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The movie shouldn’t have been remade period.
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The guy looks like he never takes a shower!! Lets hope his short career is over!!
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Eh, Russell Brand is still very successful in Britain, and usually very funny on shows like Have I Got News for You. He’d no doubt like to start cashing in on the U.S. market, but I don’t think his troubles in doing so are keeping him up at night. Also, I think people aren’t going to see him in Arthur mainly because no one cares about a remake of Arthur. I’d happily watch him and Helen Mirren do stand-up together, but have no interest in Arthur.
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I saw Arthur for free (screening) and it exceeded expectations, it was pretty funny. I haven’t seen Russell in anything before besides Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and I haven’t seen the original, but my friend who has seen the original (and Get Him to the Greek) said that Arthur was good too. Worth a matinee I think, maybe not full price.
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I love him, and I am sure I’ll love the movie. I don’t think it matters if he bombs in the U.S, I know a lot of his Britsh fans were disappointed when he dulled himself down so he could be spoon fed to the Americans. It’s not surprising that the USA hasn’t taken to him. All the better for the rest of us if he gets out before they drain him of any real individuality. Blah blah go on hate on me I don’t care. Helen Mirren obviously likes him, so he can’t be that bad. The British get the British.
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YOUR HIGHNESS stunk. Big time.
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Second for the weekend is failure, huh? Nice. Why aren’t we reading articles on Saoirse Ronan being “OVER” because her movie came in third to Brand’s remake comedy?
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SHHHHHHHHH…don’t say that quite yet or you’ll jinx it. I sure hope so though. I want him and Katy on next season’s dancing with the stars and then on celebrity apprentice —- on opposite teams! It will be such fun! And I want him to do an add for a sport drink just so he can pay his rent.
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I don’t understand his appeal at all. I hate his accent, I don’t find him funny, and overall he’s just grating. At least he won’t get any more starring roles for a while.
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I don’t know about casting this as failure-he’s got the number 1 AND 2 films in the country. How many actors can say that?
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He is funny and clever and quirky. But he is not good looking or even talented as an actor so the leading man thing isn’t gonna work. he works best when he plays parts written for himself, basically plays himself like get him to the greek and sarah marshall.
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@min76 – Dudley Moore was at least cute, in a cuddly sort of way and he was also hilarious. I would never want to cuddle with Russell Brand. To me, he looks dirty and I don’t think he’s that funny.
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He’d make a terrific stand-up comedian. Plus, then he could probably be out and still successful.
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I have never understood the attraction of RB. I mean that quite seriously…I don’t find him funny at all, he isn’t remotely good looking and he always looks (to me anyway) like he’s mugging for the camera…just does not compute…don’t like his stand up either…just not funny…at all.
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Bomb factor-Remake of a movie that many people remember and even revere, since two stars have since passed. It was a killer cast, too: John Gielgud, Dudley Moore, and Liza Minnelli. While Dudley Moore had that pixie charm that made his character sympathetic; Russell Brand, at least in the trailers, just comes across as a big (and slightly creepy) baby.
And casting Helen Mirren as unsexy-mistake!
Really, I never thought the God fearing people of USA (note Katy’s parents) were ready for Russell Brand, and that’s-okay.
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Puuleeesee-
Brand does one stint as a leading man and we smoosh him. Dudley Moore did how many flops? Anyone remember “10?” How about Gerard Butler, Jen Aniston? Their movies are one bomb after the other. I mean what has Gerard done since “300-or 500-so long ago I can’t even remember?”
I can’t believe how hard the critics came down on Russell like they were just waiting for him to fail.
It’s one movie…
Russell is hot, talented and a reformed man (that’s the success-no drugs, no alcohol). That’s to be admired!
Congrats, Russell, you’ve come along way, I’ve nothing but respect for you!
Thanks be to England.
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