Mortdecai
Lionsgate | Release Date: January 23, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
7
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJan 23, 2015
It’s exactly the sort of oddball trifle, like Hudson Hawk, that tends to attract the ire of baffled audiences and grumpy critics. It’s also the sort of oddball trifle that, like Hudson Hawk, will put certain aficionados of silliness in a pretty good mood. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJan 25, 2015
The hard part will be convincing audiences to shake off their Depp fatigue and embrace a film that's daffy, dated, and precisely as intended. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJan 22, 2015
Those who do find their way into this supremely silly action-mystery caper are in for a few grins if not laughs thanks largely to the deft — and daft — performance of Johnny Depp in the title role. Read full review
58
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJan 22, 2015
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. Read full review
50
The PlaylistMichael ArbeiterJan 23, 2015
Beyond stiff and halfhearted performances, tired and infantile comic material and a needlessly complicated plot, the real, truly piercing shortcoming of the movie is that it lacks a compelling reason to exist. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 22, 2015
The story is nonsensical and the action tepid. So if you don’t find the Brit-quips funny, there’s not much for you in Mortdecai, just vintage British motorcars, foppish gibberish and Depp curling and re-curling that mustache, punctuating every line with “Right!” or “Quite!” That makes for a quite watchable mess. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJan 23, 2015
The movie is too odd and randy to play for kids on an Austin Powers level, and too broad to really work as farce. But Depp, god bless him, fully commits, and finds a few genuinely funny moments amidst all the outsize mugging and mild sociopathy. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonJan 22, 2015
Contrary to appearances, Mortdecai isn’t a total disaster: Depp may be suffering the most catastrophic career slump since Eddie Murphy said yes to Norbit, but he’s still perfectly watchable. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittJan 23, 2015
With a varied wardrobe of retro men's finery and a hirsute upper lip, the title character of the silly comedy Mortdecai is the center of a whirlwind of horrible British accents, too much gagging, not enough good gags and weak dialogue that, while not exactly terrible, is terribly boring. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryJan 29, 2015
Mortdecai succeeds more as a talky farce than an action-packed adventure. But it would be even better if Mortdecai weren’t about Mortdecai at all. Read full review
30
VarietyGuy LodgeJan 22, 2015
There’s a fatal shortage of zingers to supplement its exhausting zaniness. Read full review
20
Total FilmJames MottramFeb 12, 2015
Charmless, mirthless and witless, this waste of time is another black mark on Depp’s card, while his co-stars fare little better. Even low expectations won’t help you here. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 28, 2015
Most Americans will be unfamiliar with the late British writer Kyril Bonfiglioli’s Mortdecai novels, on which this Johnny Depp comedy is based; still, no reference point is required to come to the conclusion this is a rotten movie all around. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 23, 2015
In the end, we must lay the badness of Mortdecai at the feet of its star. I envy Depp’s capacity for self-amusement, but it’s a pity he’s so rich and enbubbled that no one dares say to say to him, “Er, Johnny ... this is, er, really very bad.” Read full review
20
The DissolveScott TobiasJan 23, 2015
Mortdecai’s farcical mechanics are actually well worked out, which is a credit to Koepp, an ace Hollywood screenwriter (Jurassic Park, 2002’s Spider-Man) who directed the fun late-summer sleeper Premium Rush two years ago. It’s just the jokes that are astonishingly unfunny. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJan 22, 2015
What a frantically dull spectacle this vanity project is. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonJan 22, 2015
Mortdecai is an anachronistic mess that never succeeds in re-creating the breezy tone or snappy rhythm of the classic caper movies that it aims to pastiche. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 22, 2015
A psychotically unfunny art-heist romp. Read full review
12
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiJan 23, 2015
One of those rare birds that is so off-putting in so many ways that all I could do for the most part was wonder how so many presumably intelligent people could be persuaded to sign on to produce and appear in something that could not have possibly seemed like anything other than a total mess from its earliest stages. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle SmithJan 22, 2015
Mortdecai is mortdifying, a mortdal sin of a movie that’s headed for the cinematic mortduary. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJan 22, 2015
Johnny Depp has done so much for us. Let us now return the favor and pretend Mortdecai, a disastrously misjudged career low, never existed. Read full review
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