Forgive me for I have sinned…I went and paid money to see Mortdecai. And you know it was not all that bad.
It’s a shame that the movie has come out of the gate with only a $6M opening because it has so much going for it. The cast list is impressive, but it is Paul Bettany who steals the show as the manservant Jock. A real shame.
The movie reminded me a bit of another underrated classic, The Man Who Knew Too Little starring Bill Murray. I think both movies might work best if you just sort of ‘go with it’ and not nit-pick the many flaws. And a few pre-movie beers could not hurt either. The whole film seems like they were trying to have fun and that’s something they’ve all but forgotten about in Hollywoodland. Every movie nowadays has to have a meaning and a message or some.
Movies are supposed to do more than just make money or entertain, but that does not mean they all have to have meaning or send some politically correct message. They are a window into other worlds or other ways of looking at ours.
Mortdecai certainly fits the bill for that later use. The character lives in his own reality where he is special, where he sees himself as a man who is not the least constrained by the mere rules we all else live by. Like idiots, he would say. Of course, this allows the whole film to essentially become a ‘fish out of water’ story later on when Morty must go to Los Angeles to advance the plot and stretch this shitty movie to a feature length.
At least someone involved seems to have insisted on there being a Macguffin, which was a good call.
Again, if you just sort of ‘go with it’, it has some very funny moments.
Mr. Depp has had quite a bad run of late at the box office, and I am sure there’s a joke in there about how fitting it is that he should play Mortdecai….nope, I got nothing.
Moby Rating: 2 out of 5 Moby’s!
