Review: 'Mortdecai,' starring Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ewan McGregor

So look at here: We are starting out 2015 with a new Johnny Depp as a crazy character movie, huh? This time it’s supposedly for adults with the whole R-rating thing. I guess he just has no interest in playing someone regular again. Oh well, he was quite good at it at one point in time.

So what is this movie? It’s called Mortdecai. It’s based on a series of comedic thrillers from author Kyril Bonfiglioli that I clearly have not read. Also starring in this is Gwyneth Paltrow as Johanna Mortdecai, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, and Olivia Munn. I guess their goal was to make a really funny British style comedy for American people but it seems like they failed on both sides here.

So what is Mortdecai about? It’s about this dandy-like British art smuggler by the name of Charlie Mortdecai (Depp). He bubbles around as he’s trying to get money to pay his 8 million pounds in taxes. A famous art restorer is murdered for this famous Goya painting and his old Oxford rival Inspector Martland (McGregor) asks him help them find the murderer and the painting. This takes Mortdecai and his manservant Jock Strapp (yes that is his name, and he's played by Paul Bettany) all over the world trying to find this painting. Total hijinks ensue ... I guess. The B-plot is Mortdecai having marital issues with Johanna, his wife, because of his new mustache that he loves so much and she hates.

You know the thing with this movie is that it’s not good but it really doesn’t suck enough to hate. Mortdecai just washes over you in uninterestingness. It seems like they were trying make something in the old Peter Sellers Pink Panther lane of comedy but it never catches on. In a lot of ways the pacing and the structure feels like it would be a really good animated movie. I’m thinking with the way the performances are and the costuming being so over the top, this would’ve been great as a cartoon. The movie really relies too much on weird facial expressions and goofy pratfalls. The cinematography really isn’t anything to talk about other than these silly over-CGI-ed transitions from city to city.

The real saving grace to this whole thing is Paul Bettany as Jock Strapp. He’s hilarious during the whole movie as Mortdecai's tough guy/ladies’ man manservant. Watching makes you think this story would be a lot more interesting if it were from his perspective rather than Mortdecai's.

Another funny thing with this movie is the two stars of it are American actors doing English accents, whereas everyone else is actually English; it's a bit disjointing. I don’t know if Gwyneth Paltrow’s accent always works.

But seriously, this movie really isn’t something to go out and see in the theater. It might be something fun to watch at home. As I said earlier, it isn’t good enough or bad enough to even get a real reaction. I think Mortdecai is something to pass on and instead just go catch up on Academy Award nominees.

Rating: 2 out of 5 Guttenbergs

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Johnny Depp's in Charge in New Trailer for 'Mortdecai'

Counting Kevin Smith's Tusk, the last five Johnny Depp movies have been both terrible and public box office duds. Next year he hopes to turn the losing streak around with the goofy adventure comedy, Mortdecai, and a new trailer for the star-studded film has been released to spread some holiday cheer.

Directed by David Koepp and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, and Paul Bettany, here is the official synopsis:

"Juggling some angry Russians, the British Mi5, his impossibly leggy wife and an international terrorist, debonair art dealer and part time rogue Charlie Mortdecai (Johnny Depp) 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."

Working in the film's favor is a relatively weak January 23rd release date. If Mortdecai can't hold its own against Black Sea and George Lucas' Strange Magic then Depp's star power is truly shot.

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New Trailer for 'Mortdecai' starring Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ewan McGregor

Long before we get to see Johnny Depp don a goofy pirate outfit and tons of mascara in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, he'll get to sport a goofy mustache and a collection of colorful suits in Mortdecai. With the film arriving early next year, a new trailer is here to show us why Depp movies are always fun even if they don't always turn out to be very good.

Based on the popular book series, Mortdecai has Depp as the titular roguish art dealer engaged in some international intrigue involving angry Russian mobsters, lost Nazi gold, terrorists, and British MI5. The cast is superb with Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Aubrey Plaza, Paul Bettany, Olivia Munn, Jeff Goldblum, and Oliver Platt appearing to be enjoying themselves. But is the film worth your time? Depp has fooled audiences before (Dark Shadows, anyone?) and the January 23rd release date isn't promising. Nor is the presence of writer/director David Koepp, who doesn't have the best track record behind the camera.

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New Trailer for 'The Newsroom' Season 3 Covers the Boston Marathon Bombing

"We need to get the trust of the audience back." That line, delivered by Sam Waterston in the third season of Aaron Sorkin's absorbing but flawed The Newsroom, could be directed at viewers of the HBO series. After two shaky years, the show is coming to a close and for the final blowout Sorkin will be examining the media's handling of the Boston Marathon bombing...in-between everybody in the newsroom screwing one another.

Jeff Daniels is back as crusading journalist Will McAvoy, and again he's juggling his love life with Mac (Emily Mortimer), office politics, and the eroding concept of journalistic integrity. Blame the Internet. It's a shaky mix Sorkin is trying to get just right every week, and while he doesn't always succeed the show is always exciting and perceptive.  Now if only they could get rid of anything involving Don and Sloan or Maggie and Jim. It's just terrible.

The Newsroom returns on Sunday night, November 9th.

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Johnny Depp is a Big Spender in First Trailer for 'Mortdecai'

Bouncing from one blockbuster franchise to the next has obviously done Johnny Depp a world of good. Not only are the Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland movies like printing money, but he gets to indulge in playing kooky characters that audiences seem to love. It's the other movies that have become a problem, as Depp has been mired in one high-profile flop after another: Dark Shadows, The Lone Ranger, Transcendence, and that's just the start. So what does that bode for Depp's latest, the quirky spy comedy, Mortdecai?

The first trailer for Mortdecai has Depp back in goofball mode just as his fans like him. Set to an updated version of "Big Spender", we're introduced to the titular idiotic man-of-mystery, an art dealer and rogue who gets swept up in a global plot involving stolen art, Nazi gold, international terrorists, angry Russians and British MI5. Directed by David Koepp, who seems to taking from the Austin Powers playbook, this looks a silly and broad comedic romp with a cast that includes Olivia Munn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Ewan McGregor, Aubrey Plaza, and more. If it turns out to be a hit then chances are we'll see the rest of author Kyril Bonfiglioli's Mortdecai Trilogy brought to the screen.

Mortdecai hits theaters February 6th 2015, and should we take that terrible date as a bad omen?


Mortdecai Teaser TRAILER 1 (2015) - Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow Movie HD by MovieTrailerz

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Review: 'Deliver Us from Evil' Starring Eric Bana and Edgar Ramirez

Just how seriously one should take Scott Derrickson's latest crack at the exorcism genre, Deliver Us from Evil, is spelled out pretty early on. That's when we meet the very Australian actor Eric Bana as New York cop Ralph Sarchie, utilizing a distracting Brooklyn accent that is never less than comical. It's also when the limits of poor casting are taken to another level with funny guy Joel McHale as his tough, wise-cracking partner. This is not a movie that cares altogether much about the details, and as it laughably asserts some basis in reality it becomes just another boring movie about demonic possession.

Based on the cases of the real-life Sarchie, Deliver Us from Evil is basically a dull police procedural with just enough supernatural to separate it from an episode of Criminal Minds. The warmed over frights begin in Iraq where three soldiers have stumbled upon something ominous, something we know is probably evil and really clingy. Jumping to New York, we are introduced to Sarchie (Bana), a cookie-cutter cop with a heap of personal issues pulled straight from the playbook. You won't be surprised to learn that his wife (Olivia Munn, not called upon to do much thankfully) and daughter don't see dear old Dad very often, and when they do he's distant. "Even when you're here you're not here", she says, quoting from just about every cop movie ever. Sarchie has been having a rough time of it lately. In short order he discovers a dead baby in an alley, then he begins investigating a string of connected disturbances. First off, a domestic call leads him and smart-ass partner Butler (McHale) to a grungy, filthy home where the wife has been abused by her husband, an Iraq War vet. Then a seemingly-possessed mother tosses her baby into the lion's den at the zoo, leading Sarchie to have a We Bought a Zoo showdown with the jungle cats, and finally the discovery of a badly decomposed body in an apartment building.

We get to spend an awful lot of time with Sarchie and Butler as they dryly fumble around to piece these events together, not really seeing it as anything other than typical big city craziness. Of course there are strange Latin inscriptions at every crime scene and Sarchie starts hearing voices, but the idea of it as something supernatural eludes him because, as we are often reminded in heavy-handed fashion, he's a lapsed Catholic who now trusts in his gut rather than God. All of that changes with the arrival of the one aspect of the film that makes it worth enduring, and that's Edgar Ramirez as Father Mendoza, a chain-smoking priest who is like Constantine by way of Doctor Strange. A man with his own personal demons, a bag of evil-fighting tools, and a fondness for liquor, Mendoza informs Sarchie that everything he's seeing are part of some seriously bad mojo that needs to be cleansed. Time to break out the holy water.

Derrickson, who also directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the much better Sinister is a filmmaker who excels at creating a foreboding mood. His obsidian view of New York is a hellish nightmare of bad tidings, and with the introduction of Mendoza the film temporarily flashes potential for going beyond the norm. While we don't get to see Mendoza and Sarchie together nearly enough, the conversations they have about faith and guilt hold a lot of weight, in particular a discussion about God's place in a world of such terrible violence. But these moments of character are disparate, and both men too underwritten as a whole. Ramirez is a jolt of fire and brimstone as Mendoza, though, so good that it makes one hope the rumors of him joining Derrickson's Doctor Strange film are true. Can't argue that he hasn't been field tested for the role.

Deliver Us from Evil soon jettisons any pretense and goes straight for the exorcism scene we all knew was coming with very little variation from what's been the standard ever since The Exorcism. The sheer fury of their psychological demon battle is impressive to behold but we've seen it all before; shattering windows, screaming, painful truths revealed, and lots of crucifixes. Maybe at some point a film will come along that depicts this battle of good vs. pure evil in way we've never seen but Deliver Us from Evil won't be it.

 Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Olivia Munn Joins 'Ride Along 2'; 'Ant-Man' Adds David Dastmalchian; Lyndsy Fonseca is 'The Escort'

* Olivia Munn is set to join the returning Ice Cube and Kevin Hart in Ride Along 2, the sequel to this year's $153M-grossing cop comedy. Tim Story is again directing with film to begin soon for release on January 15th 2016. Rumors are the story will take the action to Miami with Benjamin Bratt playing some sort of role.  Munn will be seen next in Scott Derrickson's horror, Deliver Us from Evil.

* David Dastmalchian, who made his acting debut as one of the Joker's henchman in The Dark Knight, is jumping to Marvel for an unspecified role in Ant-Man. He joins a cast led by Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas with Peyton Reed directing for release on July 17th 2015.

* Lyndsy Fonseca (How I Met Your Mother, Kick-Ass 2) has taken the title role in romantic comedy, The Escort, an indie film that also stars Michael Doneger, Rumer Willis and Bruce Campbell. Will Slocombe (Cold Turkey)directs the story co-written by Doneger that "tracks a sex-obsessed journalist who throws himself into the world of high class escorts when he starts following a Stanford-educated prostitute." [Deadline]

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Trailers for Horror 'Deliver Us from Evil' Starring Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, and Olivia Munn

There seem to be a great many similarities between Scott Derrickson's Deliver Us from Evil and this past summer's The Conjuring. The trailers Derrickson has put together here, our first real look at the film, employ a similar slow burn style, and it makes sure to tell us it's inspired by the real life demonic cases investigated NYPD Sergeant Ralph Sarchie. Adding that dash of supposed truth doesn't necessarily make the film any scarier, and hopefully this one has enough chills on its own.

Starring Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn, Sean Harris and Joel McHale, Deliver Us from Evil has a pretty conventional set-up that may be tough to overcome. Bana plays a cop, who of course is suffering from a personal crisis, who is joined by an unconventional priest trained in the rituals of exorcism, to investigate a series of demonic possessions.

Deliver Us from Evil opens July 2nd.

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Cary Fukunaga Is A 'Noble Assassin'; Jean-Marc Vallee Gets 'Wild'; Olivia Munn Eyes 'Mortdecai'

* Yesterday I was lamenting the wait between Cary Fukunaga films, and now the Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre director has signed on for two projects in the span of 24 hours. He's now signed on to helm Dreamworks' Noble Assassin, based on an upcoming book by Paul Kix. It tells the true story of Robert de la Rochefoucauld, an aristocrat trained in the dark arts who joined the French resistance against the Nazis in WWII. This follows on the heels of Fukunaga agreeing to direct Beasts of No Nation with Idris Elba in the lead. [Deadline]

* Awhile back Reese Witherspoon signed on to star in Wild, an adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's bestselling memoir that features a Nick Hornby script. With production set to begin this fall, a director has finally been found in Jean-Marc Vallee, whose film Dallas Buyer's Club lands this December. Wild follows Strayed's 1100-mile solo hike from the Mojave Desert to Washington State after experiencing a number of personal tragedies.

*  Say what you will about HBO's The Newsroom (like that it's maddeningly inconsistent), one of the great revelations has been Olivia Munn, who steals every scene as the socially awkward economics geek, Sloan. The show has done wonders for her career, and now she may be joining a major film led by Johnny Depp. Munn is in talks to join Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ewan McGregor in Mortdecai. David Koepp will pen and direct the film, based on the fourth of Kyril Bonfiglioli's Mortdecai books that has the suave art dealer and rogue in a global race to find lost Nazi gold. [Deadline]

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Edgar Ramirez and Olivia Munn join Scott Derrickson's 'Beware the Night'

Riding a wave of buzz for his hit psycho-horror Sinister, Scott Derrickson began compiling a number of potential follow-ups. Along with co-scripting a Sinister sequel, Derrickson signed up to bring the hit video game Deux Ex to the big screen, and has an American remake of Dutch horror Zwart Water brewing with Charlize Theron starring. But before he tackles any of that, he'll direct the supernatural thriller Beware the Night, and the cast is starting to round into shape.

Edgar Ramirez and Olivia Munn join the previously announced Eric Bana in the film, which follows a New York cop who is pulled by a priest into a case involving demons. Despite the officer's religious beliefs, he and the priest become partners in battling the evil forces of the paranormal. Derrickson will re-team with The Exorcism of Emily Rose scribe Paul Harris Boardman on the script, with Jerry Bruckheimer on board to produce.

Production begins this May, which should give Munn time to finish shooting the second season of The Newsroom. Ramirez will be seen next as Simon Bolivar in Libertador, and recently agreed to put on the boxing gloves as Roberto Duran in Hands of Stone.

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Review: 'Magic Mike', starring Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer

With the exception of a very few, no actor ever started out at the top of their profession. Many began their careers at a lowly place, doing things they probably wish nobody would ever find out about. In today's TMZ fueled society, keeping a humble beginning secret is impossible, so why not just embrace it? That's exactly what Channing Tatum has done with his excellent, crowd pleasing semi-autobiographical stripper film, Magic Mike.
Yes, Tatum's early career saw him working the pole for ladies carrying wads of wrinkled up $1 bills. While many would see that as an embarrassment, one thing Tatum has never lacked is confidence, and one can only imagine dancing half naked in a room full of strangers is a good way to build plenty of it. Half the women in the country probably bought their tickets months ago, enraptured by still photos and TV spots of the cast's glistening abs and tantalizing, rhythmic dance routines. For everyone else, Magic Mike has to have been a curiosity. What reason would any guy have for wanting to see this movie? The answer is pretty simple: Steven Soderbergh.

Soderbergh, a visionary director with small scale sensibilities, he's the absolute perfect choice to steer what is a fairly common story about a simple guy just trying to make his way and stand on his own two feet. Tatum plays Mike Martingano, the top male act at club Xquisite, which is run by Dallas(Matthew McConaughey), who has dreams of moving their popular joint to Miami for bigger fame and larger profits. Essentially, the film is all about dreams and the terrible hardships the common man has to endure in order to see those dreams fulfilled. In Mike's case, he doesn't want to be a middle-aged man still ripping off his clothes on a sweaty stage. He fancies himself an entrepreneur, with a passion for building custom furniture. Dallas may run the club, but Mike is the meal ticket, and when the move to Miami gets made, it's supposedly a 10% equity share all around.

That's right. Equity. Beefcake is what's going to get people in the door, but does anyone expect that Soderbergh would make a movie that's simply about bare chests and Step Up dance moves?  It's almost like the start of a bad joke: "A bunch of male bimbos walk into a bank", as Mike and his chiseled chums discuss fair market values and equity stakes...and penis pumps. Can't forget those. Nobody navigates the world of selling sex with as much insight as Soderbergh does, and he sees some of the ridiculousness of their job, while also noting the camaraderie and insular fame that comes with it.  Soderbergh mined similar territory with 2009's The Girlfriend Experience, and much like Sasha Grey's character in that film, Mike is trying desperately to not have others define him by his work.

Of course that's exactly what happens when he meets Paige(the stiff as wood Cody Horn), the straight-laced sister of Adam(a scruffy Alex Pettyfer). Meeting Adam at a construction job, Mike quickly takes the scraggly layabout under his wing, getting him a job at Xquisite, and showing him the ropes. But Mike sees a potential future with Paige, yet she sees him only as a stripper and nothing more. The film, which is pretty light most of the way, gets really dark when the pitfalls of drugs, booze, sex, and celebrity become too much for Adam to handle.

For all the raving and frenzied fans the men at the Xquisite have, Soderbergh and writer Reid Carolin spend much of the film taking the mystique out of the business. We spend nearly as much time with Mike as he and the others engage in the less glamorous part of their jobs. We see them practicing their routines, buying new outfits, and in the case of Big D**k Richie(Joe Manganiello) that also means employing the occasional penis pump.

But enough of all this plot stuff. How much skin do we really get to see? Well, in the first 2 minutes of the film you will see Tatum's naked rear end. In a nice twist, though, we also get to see Olivia Munn topless, so there's a little something for everybody. It's almost like Soderbergh wanted to get that stuff out of the way, give the people what they came for, and then hook them with a surprisingly well constructed, "boy makes good" love story. Tatum has never been more charismatic and engaging than he is here, and it's no wonder he's become such a Soderbergh favorite.  Pettyfer still can't act, but his job is really just to look pretty. McConaughey gets to indulge a little in the pretty boy cowboy persona he's had all of his career, but he also manages to show a little depth as Dallas quickly slips from showman when on stage, to slick businessman as soon as the curtain drops. Dallas is basically who all of the other dancers aspires to be in some way. He's a stripper who now has his own thing, a business to call his own. 

Perhaps more than any of his other films, Magic Mike has Soderbergh straddling the divide between the mainstream and the art house. On the surface, the film is a tantalizing, escapist blast with visual flair and some nifty dance routines. But strip down a few layers and there's a surprisingly weighty story about making your own way and grasping hard for the American dream.

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Trailer Time: 'Magic Mike', starring Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey

"I think I see a lot of lawbreakers up in this house". Yes, ladies, the trailer for Magic Mike is here and it's got all the sweaty, chiseled beefcake you could ever ask for. But you know what? Dudes might get into this, too, as the film looks like more of a crowd pleaser than we're used to seeing from Steven Soderbergh.

Based on his early beginnings as a male dancer, Channing Tatum produces and stars as Magic Mike, a high money stripper who takes a younger dancer(Alex Pettyfer) under his wing and teaches him the ropes. Like bouncing his wang for dollar bills on stage, or ruling the bachelorette parties for big bucks off stage. Of course he's a stripper with a heart of gold and lofty dreams of starting his own furniture design business. Matthew McConaughey runs the Xquisite night club where Mike does his business.

If this was directed by any body other than Steven Soderbergh would we have nearly as much confidence in this film? Eh, probably not. But this is a Soderbergh film, and even though this is quite the departure for him, it still bears all of his trademarks. One thing that surprised me was the near top billing status given to Olivia Munn. Are we finally starting to accept her as a legit actress and not just some video game babe?

Magic Mike opens on June 29th. Check out the trailer below....

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More skin! Two new photos from 'Magic Mike' featuring Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey!

Aw hell, I guess it's only fair. If the earlier photos of a skanky Emma Watson were for old perverts like yours truly, then it's only right we do something for the ladies and present a pair of new shots of the hunky stars of Magic Mike.

Looking like the dudes version of Striptease, Magic Mike is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Adam Rodriguez, and Kevin Nash all in various states of undress. Based on Tatum's early career as a male dancer(seriously), the story has him as a veteran stripper teaching a new guy the ropes. "The ropes" means shaking your wiener in hopes some lady will stuff dollar bills down your leather chaps. Speaking of ladies, Olivia Munn, Cody Horn, Riley Keough, and Wendi McLendon-Covey co-star.

Magic Mike is set to disrobe on June 29th. [JustJared]

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Matthew McConaughey strips down in 1st look at 'Magic Mike'

Christmas may be over, but for a lot of women out there I'm betting that the above image is like Santa dropping off one final amazing gift down the chimney. THR has provided the first look at Magic Mike, from director Steven Soderbergh and featuring a beefcake heavy cast of Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello(True Blood), Matt Bomer, and a bunch of people less buffed and oiled. In the above image we get a look at the majority of the cast, including McConaughey in his default shirtless, looking like they're about to perform a patriotic rendition of YMCA. The story, which sounds like a male version of Showgirls, follows a veteran stripper(Tatum) who takes a young upstart(Pettyfer) under his wing and shows him how to shake his wang for crisp $1 bills. Olivia Munn, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Cody Horn co-star. Ladies, commence swooning. Magic Mike teases it's way into theaters on June 29th! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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