TheRetroCritic

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I say, old bean, isn't it frightfully late in the day for a spot of Mortdecai ? After all, the novels this new film is based on were written back in the 70's, the whole character of Charlie Mortdecai feels like an Inspector Clouseau-esque creation from the mid-60's and, regretfully, the great Terry Thomas is no longer with us. Where was Mortdecai when he would have made sense? Oh well, at least we have Johnny Depp having tons of fun with yet another cartoonish British accent and we have some form of Mortdecai movie, even if the whole retro feel I was hoping for is lost due to a current setting and some cruder jokes. By ignoring the obvious visual style appropriate to this type of film, this means it moves at a faster, more modern audience-friendly pace but it also means that Mortdecai as a character makes no sense and that there's constantly something missing from the movie. Even Catch Me If You Can had a cool 60's-style opening titles sequence! Mortdecai

After the huge disappointment that was The Lone Ranger , another quirky, make-up heavy Johnny Depp performance would have probably sent everyone running in the other direction. Thankfully, the Christopher Nolan-produced Transcendence sees the actor trying something a little bit different. The film sees poisoned and dying scientist Will (Depp) as he has his consciousness uploaded into a super-computer Lawnmower Man 2 -style and starts to show-off his new, seemingly endless, power, with shady, potentially catastrophic consequences. Add to that some confused FBI agents played by a third of the Batman Begins cast (Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy), a bunch of anti-tech terrorist rebels and Will's wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), who finds herself at the heart of it all, and you've got yourself a pretty ludicrous sci-fi flick with all the ingredients which make up a good old B movie yet which still remains somewhat slick and A-list. The whole thing is definitely out there and that&#