Johnny English Reborn (2011)

On the list of films that absolutely require a sequel, the 2003 spy spoof Johnny English falls in somewhere between Schindler’s List and Kazaam. This is not because the first film was horrible—I actually quite like it as an incredibly broad comedy—but little about it would suggest the need to continue the saga of Rowan Atkinson’s bumbling agent from MI7. First of all, the spy spoof has been done to death. Remember when Austin Powers was cool? That was 1998. By now we have gotten to the point where the James Bond films (and spy films in general) don’t even slightly resemble what Johnny English attempts to spoof. The current Bond films with Daniel Craig are themselves reactions against the slick and shiny James Bond that we got from 1962 to 2002, and a sequel to Johnny English in 2011 would feel like it was mocking a genre of film that’s been extinct for years.

Second of all, the joy of the original Johnny English was the protagonist’s unfailing ineptitude. SPOILER ALERT, but when he finally triumphs in the end, it is by sheer accident. He does not make a single correct decision throughout the entire movie, so a sequel—which would undoubtedly be about English in some position of power—just seems far less interesting. In the original, he was just a lowly wannabe who was forced into agenthood simply because there was no one else available. That doesn’t seem like a premise that could be sustained into a second film, let alone a sequel produced a whole eight years after the original. If this all seems like a recipe for disaster, that’s because it is. Yet even all these years later, Rowan Atkinson remains a mostly brilliant physical comedian, and he’s as good in Johnny English Reborn as he possibly could have been. The rest of the movie doesn’t have too much to offer, and it makes the near-fatal mistake down the stretch of focusing on action and explosions as opposed to Atkinson doing silly things. This is as frivolous as films get, but darn it all if I don’t have a soft spot for the series’ signature Atkinsonisms.

When the story begins, we find our old hero English in Tibet, where he spends his time learning martial arts and doing whatever action heroes do when they go into such seclusion. He is soon summoned back to MI7 by the new boss Pegasus (Gillian Anderson, because this is what she’s up to now), and he is given the mission of stopping Vortex, a group of assassins who plan on killing the Chinese premier. One of his sources is the ex-CIA agent Fisher (Richard Schiff, because this is what he’s up to now), who gives him information that leads to an hour and a half of English fumbling around with his new sidekick Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya). Other players include the arbitrary love interest Kate Summers (Rosamund Pike) and Simon Ambrose, the most respected agent in the business (Dominic West, because this is what he’s up to now). Together they attempt to stop the killing, which may involve a mole in British intelligence.

Johnny English Reborn may be many things, but intelligent is not one of them. Certain scenes feel like they were ripped from the original The Hangover: Part II-style, and the film’s plot twists are some of the most obvious I’ve seen in years. Yet this series is unabashedly about one thing and one thing only: Rowan Atkinson’s physical comedy. Most of this film is dedicated to the most obvious and broadest gags imaginable, but that I was frequently chuckling throughout is no small feat. Johnny English Reborn is flimsier than tissue paper on a windy day, but nobody told this to Atkinson. It’s hard to argue the film’s merits on a critical level, but that it doesn’t try to hide its silliness is rather endearing. This is little more than harmless fun, and I spent much of Johnny English Reborn just about completely won over.

Only in the final act does Johnny English Reborn err drastically, and that’s mostly due to the fact it moves away from Atkinson and focuses on plot. As I said before, that is not this film’s strong suit. (In one particularly problematic case, we are supposed to believe that all of the villain’s henchmen can’t tell whether or not someone has actually been shot in the face. That usually leaves a mark.) It all gets even worse when it just becomes a mildly humorous action movie down the stretch, and since Atkinson himself is 56 years old, he’s not the most believable of action stars. As hard to buy as the climax already is, it gets even worse because of overused CGI and bad green screen. I loved the ending of the original Johnny English for many reasons, and much of it is because it takes place in a single room with actual stuntmen and no extraneous action. Reborn goes too big, and it becomes ineffective in the process.

There’s no arguing that Johnny English Reborn is profoundly stupid, but it’s frequently my kind of profoundly stupid. If there was any indication that Adam Sandler was even trying anymore, I’d likely be more excited about Jack & Jill. The problem is that he’s obviously not, so when I see a guy like Rowan Atkinson absolutely giving his all in a film like this, I have to appreciate it. Perhaps his talents would be better served elsewhere—like in a series that wasn’t lamely spoofing spy clichés as old as Andy Rooney—but in Johnny English he has created an endearing yet infuriating character that is far more hilarious than it has any right to be. Atkinson could squeeze the funny out of a slab of limestone, and that alone makes Johnny English Reborn mildly worthwhile.

Grade: B-