Directed by:
Oliver ParkerCinematography:
Danny CohenComposer:
Ilan EshkeriCast:
Rowan Atkinson, Gillian Anderson, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya, Richard Schiff, Tim McInnerny, Pik Sen Lim, Stephen Campbell Moore (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Rowan Atkinson reprises his role as wildly incompetent secret agent Johnny English in this spy spoof sequel. Eight years on from the events of the first film, Sir Johnny's career has gone into freefall. For the past five years he has been hiding out in a cave in Tibet, lying low and learning martial arts at a nearby monastery following the dismal failure of a mission in Mozambique. Sir Johnny is given a last chance to prove himself when he is called back to London by the MI-7 for one final mission: to take out a band of international assassins intent on murdering the President of China. (Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (9)
The second Johnny English follows in the footsteps of its predecessor in terms of atmosphere and plot, and while it doesn't offer much that's new, it's an enjoyable and funny hundred minutes of screen time. We're once again dealing with treacherous villains, and once again we witness English getting from one trouble to the next (the boss's mother and the Queen could tell you about it). But it still worked for me and the plot pretty much moved along so I didn't get bored.
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A sequel that relies far too much on mimicry and the unlimited self-mockery of Atkinson, or rather his lead character. I'm not saying it's not fun, after all, who does mime and self-mockery better these days than Mr.Bean? But the charismatic Johnny English certainly didn't deserve such a dumb and illogical script after the nice first episode. A comedy on the basis of "switch off and laugh at everything", in my opinion quite unworthy of the clever cinematic humour that even much less renowned filmmakers across the Channel manage without such problems and with deaf, blind, dumb spots... 60%
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One half of the plot, which even 007 would (almost) be proud of, the other half a continuation of the traditions of classic comedies from the 60s á la Louis de Funès. Thanks to the perpetually stone-faced expression of the main character, the second salvo of Johnny's escapades is infinitely enjoyable, even with the unnecessary overdose of the most trivial gag of the whole film. The highlight is then Rowan Atkinson's perfect cooking lesson, which you better practice painstakingly before you try your hand at it.
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Johnny English's sequel could only be worse in two ways compared to the bland first installment: If Rowan Atkinson wasn't playing the lead role, or if he was, but for some mysterious reason he'd stop being funny. Fortunately, nothing like that happened and I can say that I like Johnny English Reborn better than its predecessor. There are many more memorable moments in the film, the absolute best of which is the cunning Hong Kong chase, and there are more original (the chair, the helicopter) and unprecedentedly refined jokes (the training with Tibetan monks and his gradual improvement - especially in the cable car), there's not a single fecal scene I hated the writers for, as was the case with the previous film, and thanks to the constant battles with the maniacal cleaning lady, we learn that a repeated joke can still be a joke if you know how to repeat it properly. And the biggest positive is the fact that this time Agent English is not such a blatantly clumsy idiot, but rather a capable and likeable person, who of course often has bad luck.__P.S. The scene in the credits made me cry. Laughing, of course.
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This amounts to unnecessary suffering that is only functional when the last two Bond films are made fun of. Otherwise, the film offers a crystalline distillate of essential awkwardness in which Atkinson's "poker face" is completely off, you can read the villain from the opening credits, and the only pleasant surprise left is that Gillian Anderson is an utterly luxurious "MILF." :)
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