Johnny English Reborn (2011)

Directed by: Oliver Parker | 101 minutes | comedy | Actors: Rowan Atkinson, Gillian Anderson, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Richard Schiff, Burn Gorman, Ben Miller, Tim McInnerny, Togo Igawa, Mark Ivanir, Christina Chong, Joséphine de La Baume, Daniel Kaluuya, Ian Shaw, Mandi Sidhu, Chris Jarman, Seelan Gunaseelan, Chris Mansfield

From Frank Drebin to Austin Powers, from Inspector Clouseau to Johnny English, comedies about not so skilled law enforcement officers remain popular. Nothing is more relaxing than watching a clumsy, well-meaning but all-misinterpreting anti-hero. After the world became acquainted with the character Johnny English in 2003, it took a while before Rowan Atkinson (“Mr. Bean”, “Blackadder”) was allowed to take on the role of the British spy again. Oliver Parker takes his place in the director’s chair for ‘Johnny English Reborn’, which has long since lost the body heat of predecessor Peter Howitt after eight years.

British MI7 agent Johnny English lives a secluded life in a monastery in Tibet after a professional miss in Mozambique, where he is taught to control mind and body. Yet the British secret service (now sponsored by Toshiba with a big wink) turns out to need him after all these years, when an informant only wants to talk to English. Reluctantly, MI7’s new leader, Pamela Thornton – commonly referred to as Pegasus – (Gillian Anderson), has him picked up and his assignment revealed. It is the start of a series of frenzied missions, which will take the unorthodox English, together with the slightly more intelligent dude Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya), to all corners of the world.

In Hong Kong, English hears from the informant that a plan is being devised to kill the Chinese prime minister. This ex-CIA agent tells English that there is a secret organization called Vortex, of which he himself is one of the three members. He gives English a key, which when combined with the other keys, gives access to a deadly weapon. Shortly afterwards he is murdered by an old Asian woman, disguised as a cleaning lady. Her accomplice manages to extract the key from the CIA agent’s corpse and flee, but English is much faster than him in his own quiet way. It makes for one of the first really funny scenes in the film. With the help of the attractive Kate (Rosamund Pike), who works as a behavioral therapist for MI7, English finds out who the second member of Vortex is, a KGB agent And, you can feel it coming: the third member appears within the ranks of MI7 to work. When English finally, with the help of Tucker, finds out who it is, he himself is falsely accused.

‘Johnny English Reborn’ is a nice British spy/action comedy with a well-crafted plot. There are more smiles than giggles, but some jokes feel recycled. How much fun is it really to see a man clapping double after being kicked to his private parts? The common thread in the film, that English always thinks he has got hold of the old Asian woman, but instead punches an innocent victim lens, the shelf life has already expired after two times. But the bizarre flight in the helicopter makes up for a lot. Rowan Atkinson is still in great shape and it’s still fun to watch him wring his face in crazy turns. Although it mainly revolves around him, the rest of the cast is also fine. Dominic West as the charismatic Agent One is excellent, and Gillian Anderson is also doing a great job as the new head of MI7. Rosamund Pike is always a welcome guest, although the development of her relationship with English is a bit dubious. Finally, the rather unknown Daniel Kaluuya also does a great job as English’s sidekick. But they don’t really get much to do, most of it depends on Atkinson. ‘Johnny English Reborn’ is certainly not the best film of the English phenomenon, but a must for lovers of the prankster and those of British comedies. After all, they are sparse.