Here’s a “rare” opportunity… I get to compare an upcoming film’s trailer with the original.

Meet Arthur… the original Arthur:

Loud, rich, consistently drunk and quite the cut-up. Arthur is a classic… CLASSIC comedy. Such beautifully dry British humor placed in an American setting.

I watched this trailer and thought to myself… man, they didn’t try very hard to sell movies back in the day, did they? Then I think, I guess back in the 70’s/80’s they could just rely on the fact that they had good writing and good execution.

I love watching old movie trailers for that reason; They don’t give anything away, they don’t oversell jokes and they don’t force the fact that its a movie and we should be paying to go see it down our throats- they basically just say “Hey, If you’re not busy later, you could come hang out with us for a couple hours, you know, if you’re looking for something to do…”

Older trailers were just clips from the film- that’s it… no re-cutting the pace, and trying to force the whole story into 30 seconds… just… plain old… let the film speak for itself.

Lacks a certain amount of artistry, don’t you think?

And now say hello to Arthur- the new Arthur:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtTVquZ2TFk

Usually everything Russell Brand does annoys the hell out of me- he aint funny. But, this trailer does a really good job of making him seem awkward and somewhat charming, in a way that is different, yet similar to the original film. For example, they seem to have done away with Arthur’s laugh…

Throughout the trailer you get that sense of: “80’s comedy”… that feeling that all comedies to come out of that time period had… you know the feeling I’m talking about, the feeling that it might could be… funny. They retained the wonderfully dry British humor and updated to a modern American setting, without sacrificing the charm that the original film created… or at least the trailer leads me to believe this… and although the trailer gives a hell of a lot more info on what is going on in the film plot-wise, leaving nothing undiscovered when a person goes to see it (again, a major flaw in modern trailer cutting), it was done in a way that makes you want to go see it for the jokes… in a way that hopes the audience forgets that the movie has a beginning middle and end.

Okay- and- let’s be honest… until Jennifer Garner appeared on screen- it looked like a movie someone could get behind, an intelligent comedy, which, is a genre that seems to have escaped modern cinema, replaced by a wave of Scary Movies and Meet the Spartans. All kidding aside though, Garner isn’t going to ruin this movie… in fact it looks like she actually might help it along… maybe.

ANYway- that’s my thoughts, slash comparison of the two films… this remake of Arthur, albeit un-original, is a step in a good direction… and even though (most of you would agree) it was a film that should never have been remade- at least it looks like they are trying to do it justice.

Fletch, Caddyshack and Casablanca are all next… right?