Johnny English: Reborn (review)

Rowan Atkinson is mostly famous for his Mr. Bean character, and being the voice of Zazu (in the ‘Lion King’). Oh yeah, he also is the star of ‘Johnny English’, the 2003 movie that put him into the character of a suave, smooth secret agent. Well, maybe not that suave, and definitely not that smooth. Johnny English was a minor success as a spy spoof and as vehicle for Atkinson.

And now he is back at it again. Johnny English has been off in a Tibetan monastery after his earlier escapades. He was kicked out of MI:7 (British Intelligence) after a disastrous mission in Africa (not going undercover as Zazu). He struggles in the Asian culture as he learns patience, self-control and hitting people with really big sticks. English is in exile, but something happens to bring him back.

He does return to MI:7, now called Toshiba British Intelligence (as the company is now the corporate sponsor). A rouge CIA agent named Fisher wants to meet, but only with English, to give over some important information and a secret key. He goes to Hong Kong to meet with the agent, but the agent is killed and the key is stolen. English learns about ‘Vortex’ a shady group of 3 people from 3 different spy groups (CIA, KGB, MI:7).

He next meets with a Russian agent who is also part of the conspiracy. Karlinko (the KGB agent who has gone rouge) meets with English, but the same assassin who had killed Fisher. Again, English learns a little more about the ‘Vortex’ group and he knows that the other main agent is a mole in MI:7. He must find the mole to save the world.

English is helped by Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya) an agent trainee, and by Kate (Rosamund Pike) an MI:7 psychologist. The top agent at MI:7, Simon Ambrose (Dominic West) is the actual double-agent. He traps English and tells everyone he is mole. English escapes and tries to stop Simon from killing a Chinese diplomat. Simon has gone there with the chief of MI:7 named Pegasus (Gillian Anderson).

English gets to the mountain top retreat where the diplomat is about to killed. He and Tucker try to break in. They get in the compound, but English drinks a mind-control potion that Pegasus was supposed to take. Now he will be under the control of Simon and he will kill the Chinese diplomat. But with his earlier training in patience and self-control (as seen in the monastery), English finds a way to defeat Simon and he does save the day.

Rowan Atkinson is a talented comic. He seems to normally take things at the Lowest Common Denominator for these movies. They could be much more sharp and writing much better and the characters could be very clever. But instead, they put together this hasty pudding of skits and reaction shots. Yes, there are some really clever parts in the movie, but then the scene just drags on and on until it loses the punch.

Will the next sequel be known as ‘Johnny English: Afterlife’?