Johnny English Reborn

In 2003 Rowan Atkinson bought us a new type of spy. There had been a few James Bond parodies around that time, but this one took it a little more seriously.

I watched 'Johnny English' before I saw this film and found it to still be really funny. I found myself laughing out loud many times. I also laughed out loud many times in this film. There are many improvements made over the first film but there are also a few things lacking. I thought this film was a bit too long. It could have been trimmed a bit to make it quicker. The biggest problem though is the villain and and his evil scheme. In the first film we had a crazy guy wanting to take over England to turn it into a prison. This is a grand scheme with an obvious villain. In this film the villain is fairly hidden and not obvious which lessons their impact as being a threat. Their scheme to assassinate the Premiere of China does not come across as all the grand either. While I understand that if they were to success it could potentially cause World War III, I got no sense of that from the story. Despite that there are still some great points. I found this film to be better directed than the first film. It feels and looks slicker than the first film. This is especially true in the action sequences which are much better this time around as well.

I have grown up watching Rowan Atkinson. I think he is one of the greatest comedic performers who has ever lived. So you may not be able to take what I say here as I am a bit biased. I first saw him in the TV series 'Blackadder', one of my all time favourite TV series. So while I think he is one of the best visual comedians, I prefer roles where he gets to talk a lot more. Like many of the greats Rowan can do many subtle things in his performance that makes him funny when he is not really trying. Rowan has surrounded himself with some excellent straight people that let him be the crazy clown. I'm pleased to see Gillian Anderson is doing a comedy for a change. She is excellent here and her time in England means her accent is improving. Rosamund Pike makes and great romantic interest for Johnny. Dominic West is suitably suave as one of Johnny's fellow agents. I was also pleased to see one of Rowan's 'Blackadder' co-stars Tim McInnerny.

The English can do some of the best comedies and one of their greatest performers is Rowan Atkinson. He does not work all that often so we need to take every chance we can to see him.