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James Bond he isn't, but he's also not Inspector Clouseau. Instead, Rowan
Atkinson is "Johnny English", Secret Agent "1", a sort-of hybrid of the
suave Roger Moore, and the bumbling Peter Sellars. While
the film has some fine moments of comedy, it doesn't quite hit its target
on overall creativity or ingenuity. This really isn't Atkinson's fault,
but more that of the filmmakers, none of whom have ever made a comedy before.
As is the case with "secret agent" movies, the overall framework of
"Johnny English" follows the traditional spy-thriller formula. Here,
English is a lower-grade agent with the secret service, but when a bomb
kills literally all other agents, he is the only one left to be assigned
the responsibility of guarding the crown jewels of England. After they are
stolen, his job then is to recover them. The villain is Pascal Sauvage,
played by John Malkovich, a very distant descendent of French royalty, who
owns the largest and most successful prison construction and management
company in the world. His plan is to dethrone the Queen of England,
take her place as the new king, and exercise the little-known rite of
reclaiming all the land in the UK in his own name. What does he plan to
do with the island-nation? Turn it into a huge prison that would house
all the criminals of the world.
Uh. Right. Well, anyway, the film's framework mirrors the 007
spy-thriller, including the plot, the gadgets and the female counterparts;
this isn't surprising, since the screenwriters are Robert Wade and Neal
Purvis, co-writers for the last two Bond films, "Die Another Day" and
"The World is not Enough." The star of the film being Rowan Atkinson,
you'd think that there would be more "Mr. Bean" style comedy, since
this was his signature caricature for which most people know him. To his
credit, Atkinson portrays a more intelligent agent than the simple-minded
Mr. Bean, and his natural comedic abilities extend beyond what we've seen
from him before, from his unique and ultra-flexible facial expressions,
to his sense of timing in dialog and other physical comedy. Even scenes
that are clearly set up to the point where you know exactly what's
coming, it's still hilarious to see them unfold. In one scene involving
his mixing up two drugs, a truth serum and a muscle relaxant, I was in
tears laughing for a good five minutes, even though the entire skit was
predictable and not very creative.
While Atkinson's work was well done, "Johnny English" doesn't really
overcome its downsides: the comedy feels inconsistent, the plot line is
sloppy, and the supporting characters don't compliment Atkinson's style
of humor. Unlike Peter Sellar's "little yellow friend", Kato, in the Pink
Panther series, Atkinson's "straight man", Bough, is more of prop than a
catalyst to the antics. These and other problems are more due to the fact
that the director, Peter Howitt II, and the aforementioned screenwriters,
have never made a comedy before. They are just too inexperienced to best
exploit Atkinson's talents or the finer details of comedic cinema.
It's hard to recommend "Johnny English" overall, but that doesn't mean
I didn't enjoy it for the bits and pieces that were fun. I do hope he
tries again, though. He definite has more promise than I'd expected.
You can find this movie on the internet database here:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0274166
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