Arthurs Amazing Things

Once upon a time there was a tedious little town, and in that tedious little town was a tedious little office, and in that tedious little office worked Arthur, a tedious little man. Arthur had a secret (although everyone knew) – he fancied colleague Beryl, although she thinks he is a tw*t. Arthur had fancied her for yonks but can't get her to even acknowledge him. On the advice of a friend, Arthur sets out to invent something to impress her and get her knickers off quicker than a frog in a sock.

With cool opening credits and typically droll narration from Leslie Phillips this is a weirdly funny film. Arthur fancies a beautiful woman in the office, but he is knob – it is a common thing that all of us can relate to (especially when the girl in question is the exceptionally stacked Lindsay Dawn Mackenzie). So far so simple but the whole film has a weird sense of humour that it goes strange places and is very amusingly delivered. Each scene is consistently funny and off-the-wall to the point where I never got bored – heck, even the end credits are unusual.

The acting mostly leaves a lot to be desired but this isn't a problem since Arthur isn't meant to be a real person and is nicely geeky. Mackenzie is surprisingly good and comes off funny and natural (not like that) and has good chemistry with the women playing her friend (who is also good). Phillips is exactly what you know he will be – which is a good thing. The direction is good and shares the imagination of the script. Amazingly nonsensical, this is a weird and funny short film that is worth seeing for those grounds alone.

The premise of this short film is very simple: Arthur works in an office and fancies one of his colleagues called Beryl but she's not interested in him because Arthur is " aesthetically challenged "

When I say the premise is simple that should be intended as a compliment and nothing less . Likewise it's also a premise that a great number of men will identify with . Okay the attempts of Arthur to woo Beryl may not be entirely realistic but that's not really the point of ARTHUR'S AMAZING THINGS , its function is merely to entertain and amuse the audience and as someone who's not really a fan of short films I was genuinely entertained and amused and I even laughed out loud a couple of times . I think Martin Gooch is a film maker who has a bright future in front of him and I'd like to see this guy get a few breaks