Johnny Depp's Mortdecai Is Very, Very Bad

Critics pan it as 'unbearable,' 'embarrassing'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 23, 2015 1:36 PM CST

Johnny Depp, what were you thinking? Critics everywhere are panning the actor's latest flick Mortdecai—adapted from Kyril Bonfiglioli's comic novels—which has a dismal 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a good thing the reviews are funny, because the movie, apparently, isn't.

  • Johnny Depp plays Lord Mortdecai, "a clueless mash-up of Christopher Walken and Pepé Le Pew," in "this forgettable piece of bargain-basement low art," writes Brian Truitt at USA Today. Mortdecai is "a whirlwind of horrible British accents, too much gagging and not enough good gags, and weak dialogue that, while not exactly terrible, is terribly boring." There are "many unfunny sex, fart, and fat jokes" to sit through, too.
  • The film "is nearly unbearable," writes Stephen Whitty at the Star-Ledger. Depp, "who used to be at least an interesting actor," is actually "embarrassing" to watch. As for Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Mortdecai's wife, "she is what other women occasionally damn with faint praise as 'well-groomed' and about as sexy as a mannequin. About as interesting, too."

  • Kyle Smith sums it up like this: "Mortdecai is mortdifying, a mortdal sin of a movie that's headed for the cinematic mortduary." There's one funny moment in the whole picture. Aside from it, the plot and comedy are "so boring," he writes at the New York Post. Essentially, "Mortdecai typifies playful English wit in much the same way as Wimbledon is known for its monster truck rallies."
  • "Johnny Depp has done so much for us. Let us now return the favor and pretend Mortdecai, a disastrously misjudged career low, never existed," Elizabeth Weitzman writes at the New York Daily News. The flick is a gag-inducing, "baffling display of wasted talent, time and resources" and "treats Mortdecai's casual sexism, homophobia, blind privilege and obscene entitlement as delightfully charming."
For more: Is Mortdecai every cast member's worst movie? (More movie review stories.)

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