“Mortdecai” is hit and miss with its comedy. There are times when the jokes and gags don’t really work, but when they do they are laugh-out-loud funny. Two of these feet-tickling moments involve Johnny Depp. In one scene his character, Mortdecai, is cocky and sure of himself during a fencing match, but when his opponent comes on strong, Mortdecai turns and runs. It truly has to be seen to be appreciated. Another funny moment occurs when he escapes from a villain and laughs at him. The villain then drops a crate on him to trap him in it, but when the crate breaks Mortdecai laughs again with a kind of “Ha! Ha!” guffaw. His over-the-top laughter makes for a very funny scene.

Depp is a bit of a chameleon in his roles, and he once again creates a unique character in Mortdecai, an English Lord who has fallen on desperate times. He concocts a plan involving a painting to secure some much-needed cash. A bit of a mystery develops in the plot and Mortdecai winds up traveling to several locations including Russia and Los Angeles. His curled-up handlebar mustache and gap between his front teeth seems to help him truly get into character. A running joke in the movie is that his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) doesn’t like his mustache and doesn’t want to kiss him until he shaves it off.

Despite some funny moments and Mortdecai’s love for his wife, the content in the sex and language categories proves too much for us to award it our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal.