What we have here is a fun packed, thrilling, action adventure. Johnny English is of course figuratively reborn. I must clarify that since we are dealing with the hilarious Rowan Atkinson!
So, down to the nitty gritty. Our disgraced hero, English, has taken himself off to some remote Asian monk-house to hone himself in the art of defence after a mishap on a mission to Mozambique. The result of which still causes our hero to have incredibly funny facial twitches. Then MI7 lead by Gillian Anderson's Pegasus, declares that he must return to help them. That doesn't mean he isn't still inept. And his ineptness does not mean it doesn't work out for him. In fact that is the whole familiar theme of the movie, demonstrated particularly well during a hilarious chase scene in which English is chasing after an incredibly fast and agile henchman. He uses the "technique" his Master has taught him to effortlessly catching the bad guy and retrieve one of three keys that the baddies are after. Unfortunately for English, he loses said key. And even more unfortunate, an aged "cleaning" lady is out there trying to kill him every chance she gets.
So, back to the three keys. English and his fellow agent (hero-worshipping Agent Tucker- wonderfully played by Daniel Kaluuya) discover what the three keys do. And so it is a race to retrieve all three keys to save the Chinese Premier. Along the way, he manages to get the second key... and loose that too! And to his best friend also- the amazingly gifted (and handsome) Dominic West's Agent One.
Is there nothing this Dominic West can't do? His performance here, tells me they should have picked him for Bond... or at least a Bond villain. What I love about Dominic West is that he never actually portrays Agent One as a "hammy" villain. Agent One, apart from the ludicrous title, could be any villain on any serious action production. The exception being the toilet scene and the final battle. Though actually, even through these scenes, he still appeared to be a normal villain.
English also manages to find romance along the way with beautiful (former Bond-girl) Rosamund Pike's Kate. I must say, her character was quite enjoyable to watch. She definitely did not outstay her welcome and provided our hero with unobtrusive and much needed emotional support.
I very much enjoyed all the crazy chase scenes, especially the wheelchair scene. In short, Johnny English is the buffoon version of James Bond. He even has his own Q, who unfortunately has had many accidents in the course of testing his gadgets. And just a bonus, a Bond styled song. Don't let the Buffoonery put you off though. The buffoonery is part of what makes this a great movie.
A fun-filled movie to watch with the whole family! What I'd advise you all to do though, is to stay at the end of the credits, where Johnny English fulfils his promise to Kate with regards to a certain take-away.
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