Johnny English Reborn (2011)
Since I enjoyed Johnny English and I'm looking forward to seeing the new movie releasing later this year, I checked out Johnny English Reborn. Though I didn't have very high expectations, it still managed to disappoint me.
Dismissed after an embarrassing mission in Mozambique, Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) has spent the last five years in a monastery in Tibet, learning new skills and training the weakest parts of the body. But when MI-7 learns that the Vortex, an agency of skilled assassins, is planning to kill the Chinese premier, Johnny English is called back in action and, with the help of rookie Agent Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya), he must stop the Vortex before they succeed.
Just like in the previous film of the series, the plot is very simple and you can predict how it's going to develop and end right from the start. The plot to Johnny English Reborn though differs from its predecessor's for one small detail, it's not the least interesting nor engaging. It's just dull and tedious.
And there's little Rowan Atkinson can do to save the situation. Though he still steals the shows with his faces, grimaces and gestures, the writers just went too far with the character of Johnny English. Instead of being a parody of James Bond, English is now so exaggerated that he's almost become a parody of himself. Which is pretty annoying and takes the fun away from the movie.
The supporting characters/actors aren't that better. Though I really like Daniel Kaluuya, I don't think he has what he takes to do this kind of comedy. He just doesn't have the charms to be the funny sidekick and he is a barely decent replacement to Ben Miller's Bough. And the villain, Dominic West's Simon Ambrose, a colleague and old friend of Johnny English, isn't as memorable as John Malkovich's Pascal Sauvage in Johnny English.
The comedy doesn't work that well either. While there are some solid laughs, many of the jokes are laughable to say the least, they are quite predictable and some of the gags are so overused they become boring.
I really hope Johnny English Strikes Again is going to be better than is. It shouldn't be harder to do a better job, right?
Published by Sonia Cerca on May 05, 2018
Categories: Johnny English
thevoid99 5 May 2018 at 22:54
I don't remember much about this film. I don't remember Daniel Kaluuya in this. It was pretty forgettable.
Sonia Cerca 7 May 2018 at 14:33
It was. And I feel sorry for Kaluuya for being in this.
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