Johnny English Reborn (2011)

Johnny English



Coming right on the tail end of when James Bond movies were still fun, Johnny English


The humour all lands very well. This isn't an immature and puerile comedy, instead relying on = slapstick, = takes and [subversions] on well-worn spy conventions, like the car chase where the hero's car is impounded, and he has to commandeer the removal service vehicle it's stuck on.

setpieces, like  crashing the funeral   skyscraper infiltration and muscle relaxant scene.


Johnny English is a = protagonist. He comes across a good mix of skilled but incompetent. You can clearly see that this guy has definitely gone to spy school and learnt all the in and outs to the letter...He's just really shitty at = them.

Poor long-suffering Bough is a good foil to Johnny. Far more skilled and perceptive than he is, but humble to the point where not only does he not take credit for being the smartest one in the room, but also genuinely trusts Johnny's capabilities and judgement.

As this is a James Bond parody, you've gotta have a dame, but I didn't like the one here so much. It's not that [natali]'s not a good fit or unnecessary, but rather she just doesn't appear much. She has only a couple of short and unremarkable scenes before finally coming into the for in the last half hour. It's a little annoying seeing a character who's done so little chastise the leads for their incompetence. Like you've done any better, lady! Again though, she does do a good job once she's finally present, especially when she convinces Johnny to =. It's a nice showcase of her = and Johnny's legitimate skills despite his clumsiness. The romance feels forced though.

Bit of a shame we don't see more of Number 1 at the beginning though.   prat  Pegasus, the  M stand-in, is fine, though there's not much to him beyond 'stuffy guy in a suit'. It'a also a bit of a shame we don't see more of Number 1 at the beginning, and maybe get   that he's a prat

is a fine enough villain, with = motivations, though is hamstrung somewhat by something I'll get into below


chemistry  that I have to wonder if it's intentional, and that's the joke, or if it's meant to be serious. Well even if it is a joke, it's too cringey to watch!

Someone I really didn't care for though was John Malkovich, who's pretty annoying as Sauvage! I don't know if the accent is at all convincing (it may well be exaggerated since this is a comedy, but Malkovich is a legitimate actor in many French movies), but regardless of that, he's a bit of a pain to watch at times. Not so bad that he tanks the movie, or makes anything unwatchable, but still not my favourite performance of his

Lastly, the score to this movie is plenty of fun, with tracks that get you in the mood for fun spy antics. They're even pretty good as far as = spy tracks g, and would feel right at home in an actual James Bond movie! And of course there's the main theme by Robbie Williams, which is surprisingly really good!

!...unless you're French, in which case you'll probably hate this! Unless the dub changes Sauvage and the ire of = disdain into a Spaniard...

Johnny English Reborn




also doesn't overstay its welcome like many serious espionage movies by being over 2 hours! Johnny English Reborn sits at a much more comfy 97 minutes.

is an example of a successful/sequel done right. It not inferior, nor does it simply rehash the first movie's plot. It tells a new story, with new characters, takes the lead to =, and feels different enough all-round to = its own thing, while still recognizably being a Johnny English movie.

one of the best scenes in the movie, which as some have perfectly described it, it's like the base jumping chase scene in Casino Royale if Bond was lazy! Lazy and clever! Clumsy and = Johnny English is like a slasher film villain, always keeping a walking pace as the villain runs for his life, finding the quick and convenient ways to circumvent all the = daring acrobatics and parkour.

But of what I like about    is that it came out in 2011, rather than right on the heels of =   bothers me about some parodies is how they refuse to wait more than a year before parodying the recent big movie   The other problem is that between 6 months to a year, there's no guarantee the movie being parodied will still be widely remembered further down the line. So with that in mind, Johnny English Reborn coming out 5 years after Casino Royale is very much a good thing. It also helps of course that the scene still works on its own if you've never seen Casino Royale.


Something else I like about the plot is =  A lot of sequels made many years after the original (or indeed, some that don't) start off with the lead's life having fallen apart, being disgraced, loved one's dying, etc, and this is always incredibly infuriating, as it's such a big 'Fuck/Screw you' to the audience. Johnny English Reborn does such a =, but manages do it well! This is because the event that caused Johnny to be disgraced is actually important to the plot!

The romance doesn't get quite as much focus as I would've liked, but it's still well handled. It's pretty amusing in how clinical it is!

The humour in Johnny English Reborn is great! It ranges from funny sight gags, to slapstick, wordplay, and more, with numerous great scenes, the best by far being the helicopter one! That makes me laugh out loud every time I see it! My other favourite scene is a little one, but really funny nonetheless, involving (sort-of) how a high speed car [[chase would go in a world with speed cameras.   Another moment I found effective was a  briefing, which amusing thanks to the combination of English's = chair antics coupled with the serious plot exposition going on around him.

The only real misfire I found in the humour was the Toshiba British Intelligence joke near the beginning. The issue isn't that I found the gag unfunny, but rather there wasn't anywhere near enough of it! There's the one example early on, but after this scene it's literally never mentioned again, and the joke ends up being extremely underutilized. A shame, as it could've been quite funny showing an espionage company becoming commercialised!

The main villain gets enough to do, I feel, but I wish the others did more. The nameless assassin[[[ appears enough, and = does just barely, getting some = scenes, but there could've been a little more. Then with Burn Gorman's character, he barely appears and has next to no dialogue, feeling pretty wasted. It's a shame we don't get more insight into Vortex, as it's quite interesting! We know so little about it that it legitimately comes off pretty mysteriously. Less = though is that we never find out why Simon is killing the other members of Vortex. [I'm ok with us not necessarily knowing their motivations, but at least tell us that much, movie!]

One aspect to the movie I liked (and I don't know if it was intentionally written with this in mind, or if it just turned out that way) is that Johnny doesn't question the new Pegasus being a woman at all. No [snide] remarks or "Oh, you must be Pegasus's secretary" jokes. Instead he's immediately accepting and respectful of her, meanwhile the = is casually demeaning and chauvinistic, = having a toxic boy's club mentality. ======.

The music here is really good Bond-style scoring, with some =[rousing], = tracks   I also liked the song that plays over the ending credits, particularly its opening, which plays the movie out really well!

Moving to the acting, Rowan Atkinson is of course a [[great lead, and carries the film fantastically with his goofy charm! Daniel Kaluuya is great as the long-suffering partner, and gets plenty of funny moments. Rosamund Pike  and love interest    Dominic Cooper exudes slimy [charm] in his   Tim McCinnery] is   = Q lead, though I wish he would've appeared more.

To finish, I definitely recommend Johnny English Reborn. It's a great comedy, and highly entertaining spy flick!...

monks backwards, chopping board 36:04, road wheelchair, 1:07:30 tucker smile, 1:19, spying for you

Johnny English Strikes Again



While it is annoying to == every film, at least enough time in real life has legitimately passed to justify the [decisions]-----image concerened and family oriented



While it is annoying to == every film, at least enough time in real life has legitimately passed to justify the [decisions]
gets into gear very quickly  the most sophisticated of the trilogy  cote de iroc   funny contrast of old and new  exemplified best in the payphone scene   love the gadgets, which are creative and funny


I like that a lot of its isn't no technology versus today's abundance ,but rather analog versus digital in a way. Johnny and co. still use advanced tech, but just stuff that'd be seen as antiquated by today's faster standards.



is a legitimately good espionage film in its own right    prime minister feels a bit superfluous, and only gets as much to do as she doe to give more screentime to Emma Thompson. I approve, but I only wish she coul'd've been more involved in the plot, like Julianne Moore's Pegasus from the previous film  a shame we don't actually see the effects firsthand of the cyber attacks



like using his knockout drops as sleeping pills, and the scene that followed is enough to make one piss themselves laughing.   As the film progressed, I was hoping she'd stay a villain. Just because she's a well-rounded and = character doesn't necessarily mean she has to become good.    I like that this time a noted = is on English's = /is English's target/suspicious person  Pegasus is supporting the investigation, as opposed to the first movie, where he was expressively forbidden from such actions.

thought = did a great job portraying the scummy tech entrepreneurs that are so prevalent nowadays like weeds   scene that made me really happy was when Johnny was watching = his evil plans...and actually records  evidence! It was during a scene like this in the first movie where I was begging for Johnny to have brought a tape recorder, but no such luck. Here though he totally does! It doesn't work, naturally, because there's still a third of the movie left, but A for effort! C- for falling into the 'losing evidence about the untouchable villain' cliche though  for all the french bashing in the first movie (and the odd crack in this one),  that there's some British

plenty of the jokes are predictable in the sense that you'll see =  but   feels different from lady Pegasus from last film, which I appreciate. I was a little afraid going in that this disapproving female government authority figure would feel like a carbon copy   one joke however didn't go where I was expecting! I thought for sure Johnny making a phone call at the end would interfere with the villain's tech, but no, instead a plot pint I pretty much forgot until now  I did think of that  but thought it was no longer important/wasn't important anymore


plenty of funny dialogue

though she doesn't do a great deal in the third act, disappearing for large stretches of time. The love interest angle also seems to be a tad forgotten, though perhaps the = wee intentionally never really leaning that hard in that direction to beginwith   The soundtrack is really the only area I think the movie disappoints in. It's fine, never bad, but I kept forgetting there even was any music. The song at the end is pretty good, despite being hip hop. Not exactly in keeping with the general tone of the series, but perfectly listenable.

pretty neat direction, with great scenery, from the lovely/sunny coasts of France to the decidedly bleak = = of Scotland/the Scottish highlands!

Ben Miller once again does a really great job.  It's interesting comparing his role as Bough to DI Poole from Death in Paradise. The two characters feel so different that it's almost like these are two different actors! One's easygoing and calm, =, while the other is abrasive ans opinionated.

really liked Olga Kurylenko









For this post I of course rewatched all three  (well, except in the case of [number 3], of which this was my first viewing), and what really strikes me is that despite having come out in 2002, 1011, and 2018, respectively, they still function as a cohesive series, and fit together  perfectly! It's impressive the tone and quality remains so perfectly = even after such long gaps.