CAST: Rosamund Pike, Dominic West, Gillian Anderson, Rowan Atkinson, Burn Gorman, Mark Ivanir, Togo Igawa, Joséphine de La Baume, Daniel Kaluuya, Mandi Sidhu;DIRECTOR: Oliver Parker;WRITER: Hamish McColl, Neal Purvis;GENRE: Comedy
RUNNING TIME: 101 Minutes
Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 3
Cinema Rating: For viewers age 14 and above
If you are a Rowan Atkinson fan, you will, of course, want to see this sequel to his 2003 Bond spoof, Johnny English. It is not Atkinson at his ironic best as in his early sketches for The Secret Policeman’s Ball or Blackadder. It is more a verbalised version of Mr Bean in an espionage context. While a lot of the verbal and visual jokes are the expected ones, Atkinson generally delivers them with his nonchalant panache.
The reborn in the title indicates that Johnny English is in espionage limbo – or, at least, doing training in martial arts and in mind control in Tibet. Some of the techniques he laboriously learns (amid many pratfalls) will come in handy at the climax with the foiling of an attempted assassination of the Chinese premier. The cause of Johnny’s downfall was a similar assassination in Mozambique, which we see in continuous flashbacks.
The film is lavish in sets, with filming in Hong Kong, including quite a chase on the harbour, as well as familiar Bond locations in the Alps and a castle-fortress in Switzerland.
The plot is fairly straightforward as regards MI7 and spying and English failing and succeeding at the same time. There is an interesting cast, although Gillian Anderson is somewhat colourless as Pegasus (the Judi Dench equivalent). Dominic West smiles and snarls as required. Rosamund Pike is sweetness and light as the house psychologist for MI7. Daniel Akuulya is the young assistant agent who has to correct and rescue Johnny English (with little thanks until the end). They are a bit like a latterday Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
It is all quite undemanding Rowan Atkinson adventure comedy – but don’t walk out during the final credits. Atkinson does a wonderful meal preparation to Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King. (Review courtesy of Fr. Peter Malone).
