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Mortdecai (2015)

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0:15 | Trailer
Juggling angry Russians, the British Mi5, and an international terrorist, debonair art dealer and part-time rogue Charlie Mortdecai races to recover a stolen painting rumored to contain a code that leads to lost gold.

Director:

David Koepp

Writers:

Eric Aronson (screenplay), Kyril Bonfiglioli (novel)
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Popularity
3,253 ( 587)
1 win & 8 nominations. See more awards »

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Depp ... Mortdecai
Gwyneth Paltrow ... Johanna
Paul Bettany ... Jock
Ewan McGregor ... Martland
Olivia Munn ... Georgina
Jonny Pasvolsky ... Emil
Michael Culkin ... Sir Graham
Ulrich Thomsen ... Romanov
Alec Utgoff ... Dmitri
Rob de Groot Rob de Groot ... Vladimir
Guy Burnet ... Maurice
Jeff Goldblum ... Krampf
Paul Whitehouse ... Spinoza
Norma Atallah ... Bronwen
Nicholas Farrell ... Auctioneer

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Storyline

Juggling some angry Russians, the British Mi5, his impossibly leggy wife and an international terrorist, debonair art dealer and part-time rogue Charlie Mortdecai must traverse the globe armed only with his good looks and special charm in a race to recover a stolen painting rumored to contain the code to a lost bank account filled with Nazi gold. Written by Lionsgate UK

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

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Sophistication has a name


Certificate:

PG | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

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Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie was released in the same year as numerous other spy, espionage, intelligence, and secret agent movies, with a couple of them also comedies. The movies include Spy (2015) (a Bond spoof); Spectre (2015); Sicario (2015) (FBI; which has a title which is almost an anagram of Ian Fleming's "Risico" (1960) James Bond short-story bar the letter "A"); Survivor (2015) starring Pierce Brosnan; Black Mass (2015) (FBI); Mortdecai (2015) (has an MI5 agent lead character); Queen of the Desert (2015) (central character was a World War I attaché to the British Secret Service); the Bondian Fast & Furious 7 (2015); Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) (which shot in three of the same countries as Spectre (2015): Austria, England, and Morocco); Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies (2015) (a cold war espionage thriller); The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) (Ian Fleming was an original co-creator), Spooks: The Greater Good (2015) a.k.a. MI-5 (2015); and even Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) (a Bondesque homage), a 2014 film, but which was mostly widely theatrically released in 2015. Also in theaters in 2015 from 2014, was Pierce Brosnan and Quantum of Solace (2008)'s Olga Kurylenko in The November Man (2014); and the heavily Oscar nominated World War II espionage film, The Imitation Game (2014). Released in 2014 were 3 Days to Kill (2014) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014). See more »

Goofs

During the car chase in Los Angeles sequence, Jock vomits while shooting through the window and the windshield of Strago's SUV is splattered with sick. A second later, when the SUV turns right and escapes, the windshield is spotless clean. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Mortdecai: As you may well know, I am many things. An arts dealer, an accomplished fencer, fair shot with most weapons. I am loved and respected by all who know me - slightly. But I have always felt as if there's something missing, you see. Some final piece of my personal puzzle. I needed something bold, distinctive.
[his cocktail arrives]
Mortdecai: Ah, thank you. The work of art with which I could declare to the heavens, I am Lord Charlie Mortdecai. And this is a little bit of magic is my mustache...
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Soundtracks

Toccata and Fugue in D-minor
(uncredited)
By Johann Sebastian Bach
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User Reviews

 
"Jock? Will everything be alright in the end?"
2 March 2015 | by jan_kalinaSee all my reviews

Jock's response for most of the time is "I don't know, sir". Just like my answer to a question, whether the film will be good based on watching the trailer. Well, it turns out once again that I should trust Johnny Depp and expect a good film because that is how Mortdecai turned out.

Mortdecai revolves around a rogue art dealer Lord Charlie Mortdecai, struggling to keep his fortune and estate. While being away from his wife he decides to grow a moustache, which becomes an annoying characteristic to everyone in his presence. Meanwhile a woman working on a restoration of a Goya painting is killed and Charlie as an art expert is called for help to retrieve the painting. Many different and strange parties are after this painting, because it is believed it contains a way to find lost Nazi golden treasure.

Even though I have given a plot summary there is not much plot in the film, but don't be alarmed. If you recall the Peter Sellers starring The Pink Panther comedies then you might remember that those films also had minimum plot. The basic premise was there only to serve as a creator of situation, a mere thread upon which the scenes could be hanged. The film struggles at first to find its style of humor, but it succeeding at bringing back the aesthetic and style of the Pink Panther films which results in a very pleasant enjoyable comedy. That is all I wanted from this film.

The second part of the film, when it shifts into USA is just laugh out loud funny from start to finish. The film suffers from predictability though. I figured the location of the painting before the characters did. It is indirectly implied so that made it easier. Another problem is this film has an R rating but it doesn't really need one. Yes, there are two utterances of the F-word but otherwise it is a film suitable for the whole family (Considering that your kids are teenagers now in order for them to get all the jokes). There is nothing explicit so the best decision in order to get more money at the box office would be to obtain the PG-13 rating since lot of Depp's fans are teenagers as well, now unable to see the film.

I have always enjoyed the master/servant dynamic in films ant TV series. It usually present in British culture. The best example would be Blackadder where this master/servant relationship is utterly genius. So it goes to say that best character is not the titular character but his servant Jock. He steals every scene he is in and Bettany and Depp have amazing chemistry and play off each other quite nicely. Paltrow and Depp make a nice duo as well despite not sharing much time together. For example the gag reflex during kissing caused by the moustache is a brilliant joke.

Geoff Zanelli, a frequent Koepp's collaborator never disappoints but I feel like he can't ever top Secret Window score which is simply magnificent. The end credits song simply titled Johanna, which is a result of a collaboration of Zanelli, Mark Ronson and Miles Kane is a sweet song. A fitting end to cap this film. I have ended up listening it on repeat. It is a song made in a way in which they are not made anymore. An old fashioned tune that soothes my ears.

To point out something interesting I noticed Charlie is not much of the hero of the story in the sense that he is not controlling what is happening around him. He is manipulated by almost everyone – his wife, his servant, Goldblum's art dealer, the MI5. It is very interesting to have a main character, who is absolutely in no control of his destiny.

Mortdecai is a great enjoyable comedy for everyone who simply wants to have fun, relax and have a good time. Despite its predictability it delivers a great enjoyment, it delivers a comedy like which is not being made anymore.


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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook | Official site | See more »

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 January 2015 (Canada) See more »

Also Known As:

Mortdecai See more »

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Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,200,586, 25 January 2015

Gross USA:

$7,696,134

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$47,275,695
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Company Credits

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Technical Specs

Runtime:

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
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