Mortdecai - Der Teilzeitgauner

I was moved to write my first ever IMDb review because of the amount of derision heaped on this film by mainly American reviewers. This mountain of vitriol almost stopped me from going to see the film; how glad I am that I stuck to my decision to see it! Johnny Depp, for me, is always good value, and is an actor who seems to be unafraid of challenging not only himself but we, the audience, too. His portrayal of Charlie Mortdecai was based not so much on Ralph Fiennes' M.Gustave, but more on characters from The Fast Show and various Upper Class Twits from the classic Monty Python sketch. Indeed, as a massive fan of The Fast Show (he appeared in the final episode) I'm fairly sure that Mr Depp had some influence in securing the comic genius of Paul Whitehouse to play Spinoza. After reading the host of bad reviews I entered the cinema with some trepidation, but was rewarded with a well-written, smoothly-directed, fast-paced concoction which ticked plenty of boxes for me; I did start to wonder if I was watching the same film that some other reviewers watched. Perhaps the humour was just "too English" for some of our friends in the "far colonies"! Please don't be put off by the large number of bad reviews; Mortdecai was well worth the price of entry!