Arthur's Whisky

Not sure I understand the harshness of many of these reviews. Not every movie has to be life and death. This is just a simple little movie, telling a little simple story about three women...their dreams....their hopes ...their disappointments....and maybe a second chance. This is a movie to just take a breath...slow down ...and just watch three exceptionally fine actresses tell a story. No need to tear it apart and critique it. There is no need to. How about simply spending a nice quiet hour and a half enjoying a nice story. This is that kind of movie. These are those type of actresses. Just enjoy the movie.

Three friends enjoy a tipple of whisky after a funeral, what they quickly realise, is that the whisky has special powers, the ability to turn back the years....for a short few hours, the girls must use their limited stash wisely.

I get the criticisms about this film, and I'll start with the gripes, and there are several, it is so syrupy, it's enough to give you diabetes, and of course it ticks every single box under the sun, imagine Disney renaming Death becomes her, but removing the magic.

The efforts to create Las Vegas were a little cringe worthy, even Murder, she wrote fans would raise an eyebrow.

However, it's hard not to enjoy the wonderful cast, Diane Keaton, Lulu and the magical Patricia Hodge, the talents of the trio manage to make it watchable for me.

A real waste of Bill Patterson, Hayley Mills and Joanna David, none of them had enough to do.

It could have been so much better, as it stands it not bad, it's sweet, it's well meaning, if only it had focused more on the actual story telling.

I'll give it a very generous 6/10.

I enjoyed this but it didn't flow. It's hard to say why. In parts it felt like a BBC kids tv show - the sort where they have a ripping adventure. Things happened with little preamble and a lot of jaunty music, then we were off to the next thing. The conversations often seemed brief and slightly stilted, as if the actors were simply conveying information. I think that was down to the script rather than the acting. "I hate you, mother. You don't know what it's like to be me." "When you were six, you had meningitis and I would have done anything to change places with you." "Righty-ho, mother. I don't hate you so much now. Cheerio." I'm exaggerating, of course, although it's not too far off the mark. However, the premise was good and there were some genuinely funny moments. I'd sum it up as entertaining but a little awkward.

A movie with a strong Scottish connection turning out to be as bad as this......oh how that pains me. Let's put it this way......you have a scale for whisky related movies stretching from 0 to 100. The "100" spot is occupied by the original Whisky Galore. The "0" spot will now forever be occupied by Arthur's Whisky. Lord only knows what the makers wee aiming for, but if it wasn't a contender for the most vapid and banal movie of the 21st century, then they failed miserably.

A decent payday could be the only reason a small group of fairly accomplished actors would agree to put their names to this tripe. The one upside is that the "elixir of life" subject matter will never extend itself to this movie, and in a month or two, it will have hauled itself off into a corner to die peacefully (hopefully).

My review contains no spoilers, but this movie is almost guaranteed to spoil the day of anyone unfortunate enough to give it 90 minutes of their valuable time.

A truly appalling piece of rubbish.

Arthur's Whisky (2024) is a mess of movie despite the cast. Badly written and directed and with that annoying non-stop Disney pixie music.

Yet another story where three old friends meet at a funeral (apparently older women only meet at funerals, at school reunions, or when they go on road trips) to bury Joan's eccentric husband. Joan (Patricia Hodge) has never been especially happy. There's also Linda (Diane Keaton) and Susan (Lulu) who are also alone. When they decide to clean out the husband's shed (where he invented things) they come upon a bottle of whisky and of course quickly drink it.

The plot starts way to fast. We have no real idea who these women are. So with virtually no backstory, we learn that the whisky turns them into 20-year-olds. Off to the clubs we go. But the transformation only lasts 6 hours.

From there on we get a bunch of disjointed narratives about wasted lives and lost youth and then we end up in Vegas at a Boy George drag show. Nothing flows. Nothing makes much sense. We never know who these women are except at the end when the Hodge character meets up with an old friend (Hayley Mills).

Wasted talent in a film that was never developed.