Johnny Depp channels Inspector Clouseau in new Mortdecai trailer

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Goldblum, Oliver Platt, Olivia Munn, Paul Bettany, Aubrey Plaza, and Johnny Depp. With a cast like that, MORTDECAI should be one of the most buzzed about films of 2015. So, why does it feel like a massive flop waiting to happen? I found the first trailer to be funny in a broad sort of way, but this new international trailer makes me feel like this is a rehash of JOHNNY ENGLISH, AUSTIN POWERS, and every other film inspired by Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.

MORTDECAI comes from writer/director David Koepp who wrote the films JURASSIC PARK, SPIDER-MAN, PANIC ROOM, and numerous others. As a filmmaker, he has been less than stellar (see SECRET WINDOW), but I had high hopes for this movie. That is until I saw this new international trailer.

This new trailer, complete with unnecessarily blunt voice-over, knocks you over the head with the fact that Depp’s character is a bumbling idiot. He falls down, he makes lame one-liners, and he doesn’t seem to have any clue what he is doing. And yet he still seems to be a brilliant spy. How many times have we seen this same plot before and it has rarely, if ever, worked. I am beginning to think that Johnny Depp is not the actor we thought he was and is instead just a high end version of Adam Sandler. I pray that I am wrong and this is just a poor trailer, but it doesn’t look good.

MORTDECAI hits theaters on February 6, 2015.