Johnny English (PG)
Posted by Hunter on Mon, 12 Mar 2007.
Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Ben Miller, John Malkovich and Natalie Imbruglia.
Johnny English is Britain's last spy and also, Britain's last hope!
Johnny and his sidekick, "Bough" (remember the old Barclaycard advert in the late 80's and early 90's?) have to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the Crown Jewels, watching prime suspects French entrepreneur, Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich), and Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia).
Johnny must find out the one behind this without humilating the nation. Of course, he does that, but he's only trying to save the nation he truly loves!
With tons of humour and laughs, this a hilarious film the whole family can enjoy.
..a second opinion...
Until I read the review above, I had forgotten about the old Barclaycard adverts with “Bough” (pronounced “Bof”), the basis in part for Johnny English. Mr Bean meets James Bond, and we’re left with a blundering spy character who does more damage to the “home team” then any evil megalomaniac could. The Director, Peter Howitt (also directed Sliding Doors) on this basis presents us the ridiculous antics of Johnny English, with Rowan Atkinson playing it for all it’s worth. To be fair it isn’t his fault that he’s ill-equipped to be our saviour super spy, but due to the rest of Britain's intelligence personnel being assassinated his desk jockey days are over, and he is now a “Field Operative”.
John Malkovich makes an appearance as the evil magnate, Pascal Sauvage, with a suspect accent, as well as suspect business ventures, and Natalie Imbruglia dips her toes into the world of the silver screen as Lorna Campbell, potential double agent. The plot is based around Sauvage’s dastardly plan to make off with the Crown Jewels, with only Johnny English to stop him.
The truth is, there are loads of spy comedy capers around such as “Spies Like Us” (Chevy Chase), Austin Powers (Mike Myers) and “Top Secret” (Val Kilmer), and Johnny English adds to it as a whole but doesn’t do anything to make it stand out from the crowd. The main problem is that it can be a little too like Mr Bean for its own good in that the punch-lines for the jokes are obvious and can be seen coming a mile off. The result is that you cringe whilst waiting for the obvious to happen.