Johnny English Reborn

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Remo D
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Johnny English Reborn

Post by Remo D »

You might recall that I quite liked the original JOHNNY ENGLISH--even though I thought it was much closer to a Pink Panther movie than the Bond spoof it resembled on the surface. Hey--if you like Rowan Atkinson at all, you're going to go along with whatever adventure he pulls out of his hat--and if you don't like him, I doubt anything he does is going to change your mind. I like him.

JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN is, however, worth noting as a significantly different film than its predecessor in that it truly does go the Bond route. The plot is rather disposable (surprise)--it will suffice to say that after a disgraceful incident in Mozambique, our hero is attempting to discover himself through training at a Tibetan retreat when he gets THE CALL.

One of the best gags in the movie comes when English returns to see what has become of British Intelligence. Gillian Anderson is just fine as the "M" figure, and while we don't have a villain on the level of John Malkovich (if you can't guess who the "vole"--sorry, "mole"--is, then this must be your first movie) we do get plenty of very funny setpieces (I particularly liked the elderly cleaning lady with her assortment of lethal vacuum cleaner attachments).

But perhaps most significantly, the film wisely and cleverly allows Johnny English to actually ACT HIS AGE. Much like Maxwell Smart, his experience allows him to genuinely (not accidentally) gain the upper hand over the villains on numerous occasions (then, of course, you cringe as you wait for him to make a colossal mistake) instead of behaving like a bumbling fool 24/7. Unique to this film is a terrific answer to today's "parkour" craze--a young, nimble villain goes through all of the crazy, death-defying motions while English (who knows darn well that he can't do what this guy does) must figure out how to keep up with him...

But why give the gags away? You'll see for yourself, and if you turned out for the movie in the first place, you're bound to laugh. Great fun.
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