Johnny English Strikes Again English Movie
Johnny English Strikes Again is the latest in the long running franchise of James Bond parodies about a suave but idiotic spy who sails into and out of trouble without intending either. But does Johnny English strike again? That may depend on how you define the word strike: as an appreciative verb or in terms of the 3 strikes of baseball. I consider it as the latter.
For the third time, Rowan Atkinson has had a mighty swing and missed once again. The first swing in 2003, I gave the film benefit of doubt. The second swing in 2011 was harder to excuse. The third swing in 2018 is hard to care about.
The first Johnny English capitalized on the popularity of both spoof films (Austin Powers, Scary Movie, etc) and Atkinson's own creation Mr. Bean, and paired with a pair of good up-and-coming writers who know how to goof around, it made for a fun but unmemorable diversion. Repeating the same shtick over and over subsequently has stretched the already thin character development so much, it could make for another insipid gag when it boomerangs back and hits Atkinson square in the face.
I'm not saying that Atkinson takes the character and the money associated with it for granted. I'm writing it. There is no attempt by him (also a producer on the film) and writer William Davies (who has been with the franchise on all 3 films) to take the character in any new directions or adding another dimension to him, which is what had made the Bean franchise so loved. Yes, there was always buffoonery but there were also moments of sympathy for the protagonist and how he also actually feels emotions. English, on the other hand, is stuck in the era of James Bonds long passed and left behind, with the sole attention given to high-tech gadgets backfiring and drinks shaken and stirred rather than on creating a character arch that the audience could get involved in.
Resultantly, majority of the runtime is spent looking at the screen in the theatre with a face straighter than an arrow. The gags are repetitive and the plot goes nowhere. There is no actual unraveling of the cyber attack plot and the resolution arrives without a sweat or bone being broken. Remarkably, a whole spy action film goes by without a major action set piece and just the one car chase. But the biggest flaw of the film is in wasting an actress like Emma Thompson on a shabby film with a thankless role and literally no punchlines.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you. But fool me thrice? Our forefathers couldn't even imagine this level of shamelessness, so they never came up with what to do in the event of such an occurrence. Maybe... try to prevent your fellow humans from getting fooled the third time? That's what I plan to do. Watch Johnny English Strikes Again at your own shame.
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