Arthur's Whisky

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.

IN A NUTSHELL: The story is about three elderly ladies drink a magical whisky which makes them younger. The movie was directed by Stephen Cookson, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Andy Davie and Julia Stuart.

THINGS I LIKED: The cast is filled with actors that the target audience already likes (mostly Brits) such as Diane Keaton, Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, Hayley Mills, Patricia Hodge, David Bromley, and David Harewood. The young actresses who play the main starlets are Genevieve Gaunt, Hannah Howland, and Esme Lonsdale.

If you're a fan of Boy George, you'll get a kick out of seeing him in this. The three older woman are invited to perform with him, which is odd since none of them sing.

Lawrence Chaney plays himself as a famous drag queen.

The more I age, the more I can relate to this story! Hmmm...what would YOU do with a younger body transformation?

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: Diane Keaton seems to be obsessed with the wrinkles on her neck because she guards and hides her neck carefully in every scene with turtlenecks, buttoned-up shirts, and scarfs. She's always dressed like the same character in Annie Hall. One of the characters sees it and calls it "French chic." The plot doesn't always follow its own rules and doesn't give us much backstory to truly root for the three main women.

Cliched dance scene at the end of the movie during rolling credits.

The movie is very woke, something I'm not sure the target (older) audience will appreciate.

I wonder why they chose Boy George to be the Las Vegas performer in the film. He wasn't exactly the Golden Generation's musical icon.

Ultimately, the movie could have been much better.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: Kids will be completely bored.

Talk of a lesbian relationship. We see lesbians kiss.

A drag queen performs in Vegas.

No profanity. Yay!

!

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.

As a Scot from Glasgow, watching Lulu, a Scot from Glasgow, trying to put on a Scottish accent and refer to Glasgow as Glasga was like a punch in the stomach.

The premise seemed funny but the film really didn't hit the mark.

The younger casting really was off too. Patricia Hodge and Diane Keaton are great actresses. Their younger counterparts not so much.

Lulu hasn't done a lot of acting, and it shows, again the accent was really painful.

The script was pretty dire, which is a shame because in the right hands this could have been quite a good little comedy film, however it was just a bit embarrassing.

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.