Film Review of Johnny English
Year: 2003 Reviewer: Chris Docker
You're either a fan of the zany antics of Rowan Atkinson or you're not. Tentatively placing myself in the former category, I went to see 'Johnny English' with hopes of little more than 90 minutes of harmless fun. Although I enjoyed it I would also have to admit that this movie sadly underperformed. Atkinson plays the newly promoted and super-clumsy secret agent Johnny English, working for 'MI7' and attempting to track down and prove the guilt of super sleuth Pascal Sauvage - played admirably by John Malkovich. There are some good belly laughs - notably when English uses the rear rocket launcher on his Aston Martin to delete the evidence from a a speeding camera he's just passed, or when he accidentally gives himself a muscle relaxant and slips into 'Mr Bean' mode. John Malkovich is incredibly polished as the archetypal French villain and Natalie Imbruglia provides a bit of glamour with her 'come-to-bed' eyes and smile that give the lads in the audience some distraction when not trying hard to giggle at Atkinson's less than hard-hitting gags. And it is very much a case of 'less than', say, his award-winning performance in Bean. Somehow the scriptwriters and director between them, all who have shown great competency in the past, are unable to cope with this type of humour. We are given so much advance warning for most of the jokes that the punch lines are little more than a much-needed apology for dragging it out so long. This was a film that had enormous potential for sending up Bond: sadly it neither does this well nor creates its own genre. The understated self-referential humour that works so well in Bond, or the overblown caricatures of Austin Powers or even Triple X have all found their mark within the modest aims of their creators. Johnny English, on the other hand, never quite finds its slot. But if you like Atkinson it is still 90 minutes of very light and harmless fun, even if the mixture has been overly shaken rather than expertly stirred.
Rating: 6/10
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