Let's Talk About Movies

Bless me father of all critic gods for I have sinned: I liked “Johnny English Reborn”. I watched Rowan Atkinson make a damn fool out of himself for 90 minutes and I laughed my ass off. Why am I surprised? 1- Judging from the so so trailer, I expected the worst. 2- Sequels tend to suck (big time). And 3- Sequels tend to suck. Oh wait I said that already. Anyway it’s seven years later, and Atkinson is still the notoriously incompetent agent Johnny English, who for years has been living in a Tibetan monastery, trying to redeem himself  since messing up a job in Mozambique. But spy chief Pamela Thornton has other plans for Mr. English. She wants him back for a special mission: to uncover an assassination plot involving the Chinese prime minister. Learning along the way that the Mozambique disaster wasn’t entirely his fault, English must pull himself together in order to uncover a mole from within the MI-7 and diffuse the situation, of course in his own special way (this might involve old ladies getting beaten mercilessly over the head with tea trays). All this might seem entirely predictable, and it is. But some of the scenes are very funny. So much in fact, that the predictable plot hardly seems to get in the way. As long as you know what you’re getting yourself into, might as well enjoy the ride. The final scene is a killer. And getting there actually is half the fun. “Johnny English” will push your funny buttons. So what if you hate yourself for laughing like a damn idiot?

Rating: 2.5/4