By Chris Tookey
Last updated at 2:01 AM on 22nd April 2011
Verdict: It’s all over for the Brand brand
Rating: 
This remake of the well-loved Dudley Moore comedy has been drowned in the States by a tsunami of stinking reviews. But it’s not completely terrible.
The screenplay shows occasional flashes of wit, and I laughed several times. Russell Brand has wisely decided not to try and imitate cuddly Dudley. He has, as they say, made the part his own.
Fatal error: Steve Gordon’s 1981 screenplay won an Oscar nomination, but there’s no danger of Peter Baynham’s rewrite doing the same
Whether these assets are enough to make the movie a hit and salvage Mr Brand’s film career from going into a death spiral, I rather doubt.
The plot remains essentially the same. Arthur is a cheery wastrel whose wealthy family (here represented by an icy Geraldine James) wishes him to marry a suitable young lady (the effortlessly warm Jennifer Garner, seriously miscast as a gold-digging, status-seeking, nymphomaniac bitch — a far cry from the boring bride-to-be in the 1981 original).
Arthur goes along with this to keep his fortune, but then meets the love of his life — in the old movie, a tough-talking waitress played by Liza Minnelli, but here a whimsical tour-guide and wannabe children’s author, played ineffectually by Greta Gerwig.
Will Arthur somehow marry the girl of his dreams and keep his millions? Anyone who has ever seen a romantic comedy will know the answer.
Steve Gordon’s 1981 screenplay won an Oscar nomination, but there’s no danger of Peter Baynham’s rewrite doing the same. It follows the same template but has made a fatal error in its choice of tone.
No cuddly Dudley: Brand with his co-star Helen Mirren
It’s changed from a screwball comedy to formulaic 21st century romcom, complete with extremely crude jokes, some of them put into