Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Studio Canal,
Rowan Atkinson, Dominic West, Gillian Anderson, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya, Richard Schiff, Ben Miller, Pik Sen Lim, Togo Igawa, Mark Ivanir, Burn Gorman
Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) has been sent off to learn kung fu fighting techniques in a form of rehab. After his screw-ups in Johnny English (2003), he was mostly just sent away to get him out of everyone’s hair. But the leadership of MI-7 has changed, and now Pamela (Gillian Anderson) is in charge, and much to her despair, she’s forced to call Johnny back in to protect the Chinese from assassination by Vortex, the evil group that wants to disrupt the balance of power in the world. Enter Johnny English who does his best to do the job with the help of perhaps his only friend Kate Sumner (Rosamund Pike) who can tell when someone is telling the truth by reading their body language.
Johnny English Reborn is just as silly as the original was. You’ll probably have a hard time remembering back to 2003 when the original came out. It’s been so many years, that I probably should have done a refresher on the old one before watching the sequel. By this time, it’s nearly a new concept again! Of course it’s silly. That’s what Rowan Atkinson does….think of Mr. Bean with a license to kill. He hams it up through his way bungling and screwing-up in a way that actually works, if you wait long enough.
I’ve always been a Mr. Bean fan, so I enjoyed this film a fair amount, just because of the character. It is a ripoff of Peter Sellers work in The Pink Panther and Leslie Neilsen’s Naked Gun movies, for sure, but in a Beany way that makes it ok. My wife and I enjoyed it. But I wouldn’t run out to purchase this one on BluRay to add to your collection, unless you’re really a Rowan Atkinson fan. It is, after all, very silly and probably not worth multiple viewings! But it’s definitely worth a rental if you like films like I mentioned above that have comedy and inept cops or secret agents that stumble their way to success. Personally, I think it’s good harmless fun, and worth renting. But if you’re not a fan of these kinds of “silly” comedies, then avoid it, for goodness sake.
Welcome back Johnny English. Nice work.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
