Arts in ReviewFilm Review: Johnny English Reborn

Film Review: Johnny English Reborn

This article was published on November 10, 2011 and may be out of date. To maintain our historical record, The Cascade does not update or remove outdated articles.
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By James Inglis (Contributor) – Email

Print Edition: November 9, 2011

The comedy spy-thriller, Johnny English Reborn, is the sequel to 2003’s Johnny English. It is not clear why it took eight years to make the sequel; perhaps the filmmakers were waiting for people to forget the original. The sequel is far superior to the original in pretty much every way, although that’s not really a very high hurdle to clear.

When Johnny English Reborn begins, Her Majesty’s Secret Service, MI7, is attempting to uncover an assassination plot against a world leader. The person with the vital information on the plot will only speak to Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson). Unfortunately, English has been thrown out of the agency for his role in a particularly nasty failure in Africa and his current whereabouts are unknown; thus the search for English is on. Of course English is tracked down and reinstated to MI7 and at the risk of spoiling the end Johnny, with detours through Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, London and Switzerland, ultimately saves the day.

Rowan Atkinson is a comedic genius. His career boasts Not the Nine O’clock News, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Blackadder in all its incarnations, Mr. Bean and, of course, the original Johnny English. There are other actors in Johnny English Reborn, but this is a vehicle clearly designed to highlight Mr. Atkinson’s talent and, on that level, the movie succeeds. Atkinson has a face he can mold to create all types of deadpan expressions. He is very good at physical comedy and Johnny English Reborn gives him many opportunities to show this strength.

As a spy spoof, specifically of the James Bond genre of film, the question arises why spoof a film franchise that isn’t around to be spoofed? The glory days of James Bond have faded, at least for now. The last James Bond movie was released in 2008 and the next one is still to be finished. Johnny English Reborn, unfortunately, is a movie that lacks a credible target audience as the dismal box-office returns in North America reflect. Apparently, though, it is doing very, very well in the Philippines.

Director Oliver Parker clearly laboured hard to create a film that has the look and feel of a James Bond movie. He gives the audience exotic locales, as well as some great looking action and stunt work. Parker’s cast is top notch with Gillian Anderson (The X Files) playing the head of MI7, Rosamund Pike (Pride & Prejudice) as the smart and beautiful object of desire and Tim McInnerny (Notting Hill), a long time Atkinson foil in many other projects playing MI7’s resident gadget geek. The screenwriter Hamish McColl is brilliant at writing snappy and witty dialogue.

The movie seems to have almost all the parts required to make a film successful: direction, cinematography, good dialogue, locales, great gadgets, good actors, but what it lacks is a plausible plot and believable climax (oops). What it does have in abundance, though, are laughs. Not just chuckles or guffaws, but tears rolling down your face laughs. If you need to be cheered up for 101 minutes and you possess a spectacular ability to suspend disbelief, then your money won’t be wasted seeing Johnny English Reborn, but act fast it isn’t going to be in theatres for long.

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