'Mortdecai' Review Roundup: Jokes Fall Flat; Depp Fails to Impress

Director David Kepp's "Mortdecai", an attempt at resurrecting the "Charlie Mortdecai" comic novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli seems to have utterly failed. Even Johnny Depp's charm and popularity could not save the movie from bad reviews it accumulated from critics and movie-goers alike.

The "Pink Panther"-esque attempt at displaying the tomfoolery of a full-time eccentric trickster and part-time art dealer Lord Charles Mortdecai, fails to the charm the audience. Mortdecai calls himself a "robustly mustachioed purveyor of fine art and a lovable [sic] scoundrel with an interest in interesting things," on Twitter.

Armed with only his exceptional "good looks" and "special charm", the elite English art dealer juggles angry Russians, the British MI5, his leggy wife and an international terrorist throughout the movie. While Depp's Mertdecai is odd, lovable combination of Bertrum Wooster and Austin Powers, Gwyneth Paltrow's Johanna Mortdecai, the estranged wife, is widely criticised for being all "bum and teeth". 

All the other actors starring in "Mortdecai", like Ewan McGregor, Oilivia Munn, Jonny Pasvolsky and Paul Bettany fail to stand out in the poorly welcomed film. Even the legendary Jeff Goldblum failed to salvage the attempted comedy movie. 

Robbie Collin of The Telegraph calls it "psychotically unfunny"

"What's fascinating about the film, other than its early and near-impregnable status as the worst of 2015, are its superficial but nagging similarities to Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, a project to which Depp was once attached."

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian calls it "mostly awful Johnny Depp caper"

"The poster is awful. The premise is awful. To be frank, quite a lot about it is awful...But in its dopey and silly way, it does deliver one or two daft laughs."

Alonso Duralde of The Wrap says, "Johnny Depp's Schtick Wears Thin"

"'Mortdecai' is by no means a disaster — the occasional joke lands, and there's at least some fun to be found in the frenetic farce of all the conspiracies and the running-around...Still, I spent most of the movie waiting for it to find its rhythms and set a witty pace for itself that would allow the humor to build and the outrageous situations to pay off grandly."

Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter acknowledges "Johnny Depp's inner clown"

"Mortdecai is stuffed with star names and classic farce ingredients, but its fatal flaw is an almost surreal lack of jokes. The main players spend almost every scene mugging desperately for the camera, milking every possible lowbrow sexual innuendo and clumsy slapstick mishap..."

"Mortdecai" failed to charm Indian critics and has not earned over two-and-a-half stars from any reviewer:

Shalini Langer of The New Indian Express called the story "predictable"

"The story is predictable, the jokes flat, and the action put there because, well, you can't very well have a heist otherwise."

Jyoti Sharma Bawa of Hindustan Times asks "But where are the laughs?"

"The jokes here are unfunny and mostly miss their mark... And that put-on, grating-on-the-ears British accent! There was a time when Depp could leave you overwhelmed by his quirky performances (remember a certain Captain Jack Sparrow?), now the same 'strange' is becoming plain annoying and formulaic. (McGregor) is one of the long list of talented actors who are headlining this film but are thwarted by its terrible, one-dimensional jokes."