When I see the Johnny English films, I can't help but think of "The Pink Panther" and its character, Inspector Clouseau played by the late, great Peter Sellers. This newer series is an amazing homage to that franchise, not to mention that this franchise is deemed a parody of the spy genre. So now we have "Johnny English Strikes Again" to continue with that 15 year long franchise.
This is the third installment of the Johnny English comedy series, with Rowan Atkinson returning, once again, as the much loved accident-proned secret agent. The new adventure begins when a cyber-attack reveals the identity of all active undercover agents in Britain, leaving Johnny English (Atkinson) as the Secret Service's last hope. Called out of retirement, English dives head first into action with the mission, along side his former comrade, Bough (Ben Miller), to find the mastermind hacker. As a man with few skills and analog methods, Johnny English must overcome the challenges of modern technology to make this mission a success. So between English and Bough they must deal with Ophelia (Olga Kurylenko) to get her to divulge the whereabouts of this hideous, demented hacker in order to save the world as we know it.
Others to round out the cast are Emma Thompson as Prime Minister, Jake Lacy as Jason, Adam James as Pegasus, Pippa Bennett-Warner as Lesley, Miranda Hennessy as Tara, Michael Gambon as Agent Five, Edward Fox as Agent Nine, Matthew Beard as P and Tuncay Gunes as Ted Guest.
It was competently directed by David Kerr ("Varian Fry: The Artists' Schindler" (documentary) '97, "The Harringham Harker" (TV movie) '03, "Sound" (TV movie) '07, "A Midsummer's Night Dream" (TV movie) '16) plus TV, documentaries and a TV short. What actually helped this to have the deep direction it had was the fact that this filmmaker has a ton of TV work to his credit. With the limited feature film experience, the plethora of TV experience simply served here well. I've said it before and I'll say it again, in order to transition into the feature film industry, having a strong TV resume assists in either directing or writing well when presented with a theatrical project, such as with the case with this film. It was adequately written by William Davies ("Twins" '88, "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" '92, "Ghost in the Machine" '93, "The Guilty" 2000, "Johnny English" '03, "Flushed Away" '06, "How to Train Your Dragon" '10, "Mia and the White Lion" '18) plus others and TV movies. Certainly, by his resume, Davies is an accomplished, seasoned writer and this film did showcase that to a point, however as the storyline was unfolding, there were a few inconsistencies in plot and I felt it would be a bit funnier than it was. I realize that British humor is more powder dry than American humor, and I certainly took that aspect into consideration, but I felt that I was having to force some of the laughs out of me. I usually am fond of British humor because of the dryness, but the truly funnier lines were fewer and farther apart as film progressed. Not sure what happened to Davies--bad day a the laptop? Not sure, but will there be a fourth Johnny English? Maybe, but time will tell. The savings grace of this was that as Atkinson. His ability to convey his humor is all in his expressions was near perfect. He's great at physical comedy and even better with his facial expressions which speak volumes.
Interesting that it's been 15 years since the first Johnny English and with this, it is remarkable how little Atkinson has actually aged. He basically looks the same today as he did in '03. Another positive aspect of this film is that the whole family can enjoy this since it isn't riddled with 4-letter words and doesn't have a ton of sex and drugs referenced throughout the film as with many of the comedies today. If you like talented physical comedy with great facial expressions with a dash of wholesomeness, this is the film for you. This certainly makes up for a script that definitely has some issues.
Out of 4 Stars: 2.5 Rated: PG 88mins.
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