Johnny English Reborn

Out cold!

Ruwini Jayawardana

Imagine Mr Bean in the guise of a detective in a ‘James Bond’ parody. That is one way of describing ‘Johnny English Reborn’. The only difference is that the main character can voices his opinion and gets into less scrapes than Mr Bean.

With less humour intact, the unlikely hero wins the day by managing to accomplish his mission and win the fair lady’s hand. This much hackneyed theme of the story offers the audience nothing new and would have gone unnoticed if the well loved Rowan Atkinson had not given life to the lead role.

Assassins

The sequel to the 2003 ‘Johnny English’ movie, 2011’s ‘Johnny English Reborn’ sees English in another overly calculated comedy of errors. After a training session at a Tibetan monastery in which he learns some martial arts techniques and how to train the mind, English returns to Her Majesty’s Secret Service to be assigned on a special mission to thwart an attempt on the Chinese Prime Minister’s life by spy Chief Pamela Thornton. Thoroughly humiliated by English’s messed up job in Mozambique, Thornton warns English that she will not tolerate another scenario of the kind only to realize that she had uttered her words too soon.

With English and an equally incompetent new detective on the job a series of comic incidents follow from chasing Chinese assassins on rooftops and the sea to mistaken identities and having valuable objects robbed from right under their noses. Some of the genuinely comic incidents arise in these episodes. In one scene English grabs Thornton’s mother from behind, believing her to be the Chinese female assassin. In another he tries to level his chair at a meeting by working on an electronic gadget. The fact that Atkinson plays the incident with a straight face while sitting next to the Prime Minister adds to the merriment. It is truly worth a chuckle because he pulls it off in true Mr Bean style. This is probably the best gag in the film since the event occurs when serious talk is abuzz. However throughout the story the laughs are few and far apart. This lets down ‘Johnny English Reborn’ badly because the livewire of the film is supposed to be its comic element.

Romance

Rowan Atkinson is the only saving grace of ‘Johnny English Reborn’. That is because he had made an unparallel mark in the audience’s hearts as Mr Bean. It is not the buffoonish British spy that they are here to cheer but their affection for Mr Bean. Unlike in his ‘Mr Bean’ series Atkinson’s comic antics seem a bit too oblivious in ‘Johnny English’.

Even the talented Gillian Anderson’s presence does not evoke much interest as the storyline falls flat. However she is the only actor out of the lot who seems to retain the most dignity and delights us in barely masking her contempt.

Rosamund Pike is not convincing as the beautiful special agent Kate Summers. There is hardly any chemistry between her and English. It is as if her character and English’s have been forced together to give a hint of romance to the comedy and make it more ‘James Bond’ like. However Daniel Kaluuya as English’s young partner, Agent Tucker, works wonders into the tale. His character is well rounded from joining in English’s crazy antics to making more level headed remarks which outwit English. In a way he is the unsung hero of the story for if you had let him have his way, the assassins would have been caught several episodes ago.

Gags

Some of the gags in the story are quite eye catching and generates interest. Unfortunate director Oliver Parker seems to be too deeply involved in the action to explore these avenues. One such example is the voice-controlled-Royce that can follow its owner around on command. It is a pity that such an interesting device only comes to light in two scenes and does not have a bigger part to play.