Continuing with my theme of simply posting stuff I wrote for the paper, A.K.A. I can’t think of anything to write about just now, so I am just posting stuff that I have already written. Here is the review I did of Johnny English Reborn. ‘I don’t give a fuck, this is what I want to do’, Winston Churchill said that.
Ever wondered what it would be like if Mr Bean was a government spy. Well you need wonder no more; all you have to do is watch Johnny English Reborn – the second instalment in the franchise.
Rowan Atkinson returns as the hapless secret agent Johnny English who since the first movie has been removed from MI7 because of a mysterious mission failure in Mozambique which cause Johnny to twitch every time it is mentioned, but that’s not important just yet.
If you are someone who is going to see this movie or is thinking about it, you should not be expecting what I would deem a great movie. In the sense that the opening scenes have Johnny living as a Buddhist monk in some sort of mountain temple, the opening few minutes of the movie simply consist as a series of strength tests that Johnny has to go through, including pulling a rock along the ground with his testicles. Something I’m sure all Buddhists have to go through at one point on their way to achieving spiritual Nirvana. Despite the ridiculousness of this, I laughed, I’m not ashamed to admit that seeing Rowan Atkinson perform such a feat was amusing to me. You won’t see him winning any Oscars for it, but hey this is not a true film buffs film.
The rest of the movie follows on a similar path to the opening. There is plenty of slapstick humour with lots of Johnny English, falling over, getting hit in the end with various objects and also quite a hilarious chase scene where he walks not runs after a man who had tried to kill him, but simply ‘using his mind’ to get around the various obstacles that confront him.
But what of the plot? Well that doesn’t exactly take long to explain. Basically a team of assassins wish to kill the Chinese Premier, why? That is never explained but as I said this a movie you watch to see people fall over and walk into doors etc. Anyway, Johnny English is charged with stopping this team of assassins and he of course makes numerous errors along the way and without wanting to spoil it too much, he fails to spot many things that are right in front of him.
Along the way Johnny is eagerly assisted by his assistant Tucker played by Daniel Kaluuya of Skins fame. Tucker is a young up and coming secret agent who is both confused and impressed by the English’s actions, but by the end he has come of age and is a proper agent and blah blah blah, cliché etc
In summary, this really wasn’t a bad film. If you are a film buff it won’t go down as one of the greats, but if you want to go to a film to be amused then it’s worth a watch because despite its problems it is funny. It would have been a lot better if Ben Miller had reprised his role as Bough from the first movie, but still there is enough there for an enjoyable movie.
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