Johnny English seems like a bit of a weird film to make a sequel of. The first film was made years ago and it was a tad immature and stupid (even if it did make a decent amount of cash at the UK box office). Unfortunately this sequel doesn’t do much to change my view of the franchise.
Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson), is the worst agent at MI7, a bumbling fool who was fired when he failed to stop the assassination of the President of Mozambique. MI7 bring him back in because they believe he is the best man for a job they feel he has particular expertise for. Over the course of the film he uncovers a massive conspiracy and must act to save the world from a third world war.
As you can tell, the film is designed to be a 007 parody, with the basic idea being – what if James Bond was a buffoon? – but the comedy isn’t very clever. The makers of the film clearly think Rowan Atkinson is funnier than he actually is, believing that the whole thing can be carried by his hilarious’ antics. There are some aspects of this parody that they get across quite well, like the ridiculousness of the Q sequences. The free-running scene from Casino Royale is pastiched quite well with English simply walking – and at one point getting a lift – yet still keeping up with the bad guy.
One problem this film suffers from is that if a joke is funny, it often runs it into the ground by using the same gag again and again. For instance, a hit-man disguised as cleaner who makes guns out of whatever she is carrying is quite amusing the first time, but it becomes gradually less so each time she appears, the highlight being a Gatling gun inside a golf bag. It misfires more times than it hits, with a wheelchair chase – that you’ve probably seen in the trailers – being dragged out and only containing one good joke. A lot of the humour is very immature as well making a lot of ball jokes throughout (it feels as if when they can’t think of a joke, they just hit someone in the balls!) which would only entertain prepubescent boys.
The supporting cast don’t offer much to save the film, with English’s number 2, Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya) being mostly annoying and the jokes about how young he is are just weak. Rosamund Pike isn’t too bad as Johnny’s love interest, but she isn’t given much to do. Gillian Anderson as the head of MI7 suffers a similar fate. Dominic West as the villain is mostly just boring and forgettable.
The special features aren’t really worth a look as you mostly get some deleted/extended scenes that would have actually made the film worse. You also get a short making of the wheelchair chase feature, which I didn’t enjoy, but then I also didn’t enjoy the actual scene. Finally you get a commentary with the director, Oliver Parker, which is pretty much just a waste of time as it’s mostly just him saying how great Rowan Atkinson is.
Overall Verdict: As a James Bond parody, Johnny English Reborn gets across a few adequate criticisms of the franchise its lampooning, but misses more than it hits.
Special Features:
The Wheelchair Chase Featurette
Gag Reel
Deleted/Extended Scenes with Intro from Director Oliver Parker
Feature commentary
Reviewer: Matt Mallinson