I watched “Arthur” as a kid, right around the time it made its way to HBO. I wasn’t yet allowed to go watching grown-folks movies at the theater, so I settled for sneaking them from our stolen cable, at least until my dad went all Sherlock Holmes and figured out I was watching “The Blue Lagoon” with the sound off. My bad for not realizing that Sears-branded electronics get pretty warm when you run them a while. Double demerits for not abandoning the mission when it became clear nothing remotely interesting was going to happen on the shores of said lagoon.

I watched this rather unnecessary remake of “Arthur” at a free preview screening this week. It sticks very closely to the 1981 version, so closely in fact that I’m not sure why it was greenlighted. The filmmakers don’t seem to have anything new to say about silly drunk millionaires finally coming of age in early midlife. It still looks fun to be rich and intoxicated, although the film undercuts the amusement some with a long bummer of an AA sequence. I guess it’s a sign of the times we live in. We can’t just let Otis sleep it off in his reserved cell, we have to get him to Dr. Drew, STAT. The movie also spends a lot more time on the consequences of his drunkenness than the original, which is probably stupid. It’s 2011. If you are heir to a fortune, there are no consequences to being a public nuisance. Hell, you can release a sex tape of yourself and get a record deal and a reality show.

Since not much changes, and anyone reading this is likely to have seen the Dudley Moore version, I’ll just offer a few bullet points.

– Russell Brand is often quite funny, but he probably wasn’t ready to carry a film just yet. He mugs his way through a lot of this, and the scenes without jokes are kind of hard to buy.

– Luis Guzman is predictably awesome. He really should get a part in every movie.

– Helen Mirren is more than up to the task of being as funny as Sir John Gielgud. Best thing about this remake was casting her. Well, her and Greta Gerwig.

I don’t think anything happens here that’s so remarkable that you need to rush out to see it, but I wouldn’t turn down the headphones if my plane was showing it.