Johnny English Reborn

Johnny English Reborn

Written by Film Brain Wednesday, 12 October 2011 19:44

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(59 votes, average 4.66 out of 5)

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Comments (37)

10.12.2011 - 20:42 | alexthed

I must admit I am one of the people who liked the first Johnny English. I think you about hit the nail on the head - not great, but some enjoyment. To be fair, that did come out when Bond spoofs/wannabes were kind of en vogue. There was XXX, another Spy Kids movie, Goldmember, I Spy - largely because of Die Another Day. It was kind of a "Me too" movie, but at least it made sense to hop on the bandwagon. I really don't see the point of making this now since it's been a while since there's been a Bond movie.

10.12.2011 - 20:52 | Nostalgiafan129

Exactly how I feel.

10.13.2011 - 00:47 | LikaLaruku

I laughed my ass off at the first movie.

My theory is that sometime around the big writer's strike, comedies just stopped being funny. The shit comedies they're making for adults are the same shit they make for kids; all the intelligence insulting goodness, but with underwear & perversion so it can pass as not-for-kids.

Id say that these days if you're going to have a comedian star in a comedy, make sure the comedian is the one writing the jokes & not the humorless script monkeys.

This movies can't have done too bad; it has a 7/10 on imdb.

05.03.2012 - 04:26 | Shadow4119

Oh, man, I would love to see someone on this website review I Spy. It might have to be Film Brain, though.

10.12.2011 - 20:46 | spookydonkey42 - aha!

you didnt fade out! you sideswiped!!! but, yeah atkinson "signposting" each gag is about as true as it gets. i wish he would do something clever, as the bumbling gag is beyond worn out. good review dood

10.12.2011 - 21:27 | Mysterion - How sad

I thought Johnny English was awful maybe I had set my hopes to high. I did not have high hopes for this film, but I hoped it would atest be funny.

10.12.2011 - 21:28 | reignfire77

did phelous really write this or are you checking to make sure we're paying attention? and seriously rowan, mr. bean super sleuth, only works once... barely

10.12.2011 - 21:35 | harmonicajay

I forgot about that movie years ago. Seriously? Now a sequel?

10.12.2011 - 21:43 | BooRat

I desided not to see this one when I saw the trailer and as you said counted all the same old Spy Movie Parody jokes they were using agian!

10.12.2011 - 21:54 | hownice

You'll have better time with Mr. Bean's Vacation movie, it felt like Mr. Bean with actual plot~!

10.12.2011 - 21:57 | nightwingfan87

The new background made it look like you were doing a PSA commercial, or modeling. Nice haircut btw.

As for this movie, yeah, assuming English is funny be default or attempting a Mr. Bean as a spy-gag doesn't really work.

10.12.2011 - 22:45 | AlphaMail

I love Rowan Atkinson, but he should stick to television, and never do movies.

10.12.2011 - 23:24 | MelodicBlasphemy

When I saw a trailer for this, I had to ask who Johnny English was. I've never heard of the movie so the sequel came as a surprise to me.

10.12.2011 - 23:33 | Quantum Wolf

When I first saw the trailer in Captain America, I was confused that Rowan Atkinson was now in a spy flick comedy. But as it progressed, memories started to surface, then I realized that the trailer I'm watching is the sequel, and I remembered I watched the original one AGES ago.

Better late than never I guess, but wow, the sequel sure took its sweet time coming out. And now that I think about it, I don't particularly care about it either.

10.13.2011 - 00:07 | SailorCardKnight

I'm one of the rare few who liked the first film. Sure some of the gags I could see coming a mile away, but I still found it alot of fun, plus i'm also a fan of Rowan Atkinson.

As much as I loved the first film, I honestly find having a sequel pointless and unnecessary, especially 8-9 years after the first film. Meh, maybe I'll watch it anyways one of these days when they finally start showing it on TV, because I liked the first.

10.13.2011 - 00:13 | SpAM_CAN - Loved by my age

This is gonna sound weird, but Johnny English is listed on many people's most funny films ever lists around my age (16, give or take 2 or 3 years). I don't know why this is, but most people I know (and i've moved here 3 years ago, people in my old town were the same) can quote 95% of the film entirely accurately. A few people hadn't seen it before, to be fair, and I sent them off with a DVD. They loved it, to the extent of the rest of us. I don't understand alot of the hate for this film, considering how many people truly love it.

Plus the theme song was from Robbie Williams at the peak of his career :3

As for the new film, I'd had better be good. My boyfriend is taking me to go see it on a date xD If it isn't very good, i'm sure we can find something else to do in a darkened room with padded seats.

10.13.2011 - 00:30 | falock - no surprise

having already seen this film, I can confidently say i loved it. the jokes are really toned down from being huge over the top jokes that can get annoying. atkinson does a fantastic job becoming english again. the villians and general tone is less tongue and cheek and finding the grains of humour rather than a full kernel.

I am a huge atkinson fan to be fair. and loved the first. when i heard the sequel was coming out, i said about time, and immediately started anticipating since last october. welcome back johnny i missed you

10.13.2011 - 01:05 | sprezzatura

lol i'm glad someone had fun with it- I keep hearing everyone saying "Oh, who really wants a Johnny English sequel?" and my response is "Ahem... I do?"

10.13.2011 - 00:33 | AlucardsQuest

Never heard John Malkovich being described as entertaining before... I don't think I'd ever get used to someone saying anything kind about arguably the worst actor in Hollywood.

10.13.2011 - 01:04 | sprezzatura

I still think I'll see it- it's not something I'd admit to a lot of people, but the first one is one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies, and even if the second one isn't peerless quality, hopefully something of the original one will come through.

10.13.2011 - 01:32 | The_Awesometeer

Why do movies like these get sequels?

10.13.2011 - 03:55 | leonard267 - The movie is not that terrible surely?

The movie got an earlier release in Asia around September where I am from. I found the sequel very enjoyable, at least for the parts where they tried to parody the Bond movies.

Spoiler alert:

The helicopter scenes where they treat the helicopter like a car; the wheelchair chase scene; how Johnny English chased a lackey about Hong Kong without putting in much physical effort; English bashing up the Queen towards the end of movie, are all quite funny scenes which are good parodies. Never mind that they are copied from other movies.

If you walk into the theatre expecting a good plot with well developed characters and motives however, do expect to be disappointed. However, when I watched that movie, I did not care about the plot that much. That is how I derive maximum enjoyment from this movie.

10.13.2011 - 04:26 | gamepopper

I thought Johnny English: Reborn was better than the first in it's presentation, even if that isn't saying much. The first one had some really bad CG and weak jokes.

I did like some of the jokes in this one, like the chase and fight scenes, but most of the jokes are very dated and were already done in better films, like you said.

The strangest thing was when I saw it, people actually applauded at the end of this film. The last time I remember that happening was Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a much better film and a great addition to a timeless classic, was Johnny English that good to deserve an applause?

10.13.2011 - 04:52 | Zoonerd

I feel like I'm owed some form of compensation after seeing this movie. It's not a comedy, I refuse to refer to it in such grandiose terms, It's more like an straight to DVD Asylum rip-off of a Bond film that wasn't good in the first place.

Having good actors and placing them in mostly straight roles so that they don't really do...anything? Bad idea. Having the majority of the 'jokes' be predictable, reused over and over or just shown in the trailer? Bad idea.

By the time it became obvious that the plot was over and they were still trying to flog the dead horse of the 'mistaking old woman for assassin' joke for a third time I'd had enough and was begging for the credits to roll.

However if you ignore everything bad about the movie (and that's quite a task) there are maybe two or three enjoyable scenes. The question to anyone thinking about seeing it is: Are your standards that low?

10.13.2011 - 10:43 | leonard267

You can say that I have a weakness for Rowan Atkinson and that I am new to these jokes that is why I enjoyed the movie. Perhaps I should watch more movies. But I will recommend the movie nonetheless.

I am of the opinion that you can repeat the jokes time and time again if they are set in a different context. For example the old woman bashing occured in three different scenes. The first scene the context was English bashing his superior's wife. The second time he did that the old woman clobbered him back. The third time the context was bashing the lady monarch who will be restoring his knighthood. That in my opinion made it humorous for me. Jokes that repeated over and over again in a predictable fashion are not necessarily unfunny in my opinion so long as you change the context. It boils down to what you perceive humour to be.

Perhaps this is the reason why it was released in Asia first, where I think people there either have low standards or have a different expectation of humour. I have heard that Asians like jokes with some element of repetition.

10.13.2011 - 10:11 | KamikazeKitten

This film was painful to sit through, I spent most of the time sighing and thinking about how much I would rather be watching An Idiot Abroad 2.

10.13.2011 - 12:50 | Mr. Fusion

oh rowan atkinson why!? why!? why!?

10.13.2011 - 13:12 | Semudara

I rather liked the original, and as a matter of fact I do still remember most of it. I'm still open to the possibility that the sequel sucks and shouldn't exist (a la "Cats & Dogs"), but the two trailers are actually pretty amusing, so I'm not going to judge.

10.13.2011 - 17:03 | NaomiHansen

Graaaah! That wasn't a fade out idiot APAFASDOPFDSOPF-!

Anyway, before I go into actual troll mode on accident! X3

I... Barely even remember the first movie. Then again, I was pretty young and I didn't see the whole thing when my parents rented it out, but still. I didn't even know that they made this, but considering how terrible sequels for almost anything these days seem to be, I think I would know to avoid it, even without watching the review.

...God, these are sad times. ._.'

Auf Wiedersehen!
-Naomi Hansen

10.13.2011 - 20:17 | leonard267 - Do watch it at least on DVD

I enjoyed the movie really. I would recommend you to see it. Especially if you are not familar with the movie.

It is not really a sequel if you define sequels as a continuation of the first movie.

There was barely any reference to the first movie in English Reborn. You can treat it as a new movie altogether.

10.13.2011 - 18:48 | SomeNorwegian

1:32 Is that Percy/Cpt. Darling from Black Adder? :)

10.14.2011 - 09:37 | WiiStation360

I liked the original movie, but this one doesn't seem too good from the clips I've seen, it's a sequel to an only moderately successful movie released many years later so I don't have hopes for it.

10.14.2011 - 10:56 | raith0818

I figured this would be dumb. Rowan Atkinson, even if you make a crap movie, you can do no wrong. I'll always love ya.

Gillian Anderson? Wow. She musta owed someone a huge favor or something.

10.14.2011 - 13:53 | Voice

Everybody keeps asking, "Why make a sequel to Johnny English eight years after the fact?" Isn't it obvious?

Rowan Atkinson collects cars.

05.28.2012 - 14:00 | Pancake of Doom - @ Voice

I think you've nailed it :D

10.16.2011 - 03:00 | Ben_from_G-town

Soo... he's not being Mr. Bean in this movie? Also, I've never even heard of the first film. Very odd... Dunno, it looks one I'll probably skip.

10.16.2011 - 12:43 | Behellmorph

I'm okay with these films. Though for Reborn i wil lsay that it did pleasently suprise me at one point, I was pleased to see Burn Gorman from Torchwood..shame he didn't get much to do.

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