Johnny English Strikes Again (Review)

Johnny English Strikes Again is Pretty Much Exactly What You Expect.

Johnny English Strikes Again is a film that solely relies on the classic comedy stylings of Rowan Atkinson. Normally, I would call this a crutch or even downright lazy, but there’s a reason why Atkinson’s considered a comedy genius and why I referred to his style as classic. This might not be a high brow film, but it’s one that will definitely get more than a few laughs out of the audience, and that’s what really matters in the end.

Johnny English returns for a surprising third film in his series of spy-spoofing films. This time around he’s taking on a cyber-terrorist and director David Kerr takes this opportunity to shine a light on the absurdity of the analog espionage films of yesteryear. So it makes perfect sense to brush off Atkinson for a film like this. The thing is that this film doesn’t really show us anything new from the actor. If you’ve seen any of the other Johnny English films or Mr. Bean episodes, then you know exactly what to expect. But is that really a bad thing?

As much as I wanted to groan during the first few minutes of this movie and as much as my higher brain functions protested, I couldn’t help laughing throughout Johnny English Strikes Again. The jokes are all more than a little obvious, all of them being set up with the delicacy of a gorilla that stumbled across a toddler in its enclosure, but that didn’t stop me from laughing a lot more than I should at every last one of them. Part of that is because Atkinson could make a eulogy funny, but the other part of that is because Kerr does a surprisingly could job actually making sure the punchlines pack a, well, punch. Some of the sequences get a little long in the tooth from time to time, but this film is still much more enjoyable than it should be.

Of course, I could start tearing into Johnny English for its sloppy pacing, awkward story structure, uninspired cinematography and so on, but who really cares? If you’re going to see this movie in theaters, you’re not trying to see a moving piece of cinema. You want to turn your brain off for an hour and a half and laugh at Atkinson being a total buffoon. If that’s not what you’re looking for, then I honestly have no idea why you’re even thinking about seeing this film. If you are though, then I will tell you that this is a movie that plays to its strengths. It’s purely designed to make you laugh and it succeeds most definitely when it comes to that. Everything else about this film is an absolute trash fire, but like I said before, who cares?

This is a film site that was put together purely to grade films on how good they are and how enjoyable they are. There have been a lot of incredible movies that have been beyond boring, and even more that were absolute garbage but I could watch over and over again. Johnny English Strikes Again is what I like to refer to as an airplane movie. Sure it’s not great, but you sure are grateful to have it to help you pass the time. What I mean by that is that it doesn’t seem like a movie you’d normally want to set out to see, but you actually will enjoy by the end of it. You might not ever want to admit it in public, but there’s no need to be embarrassed about liking bad movies. Trust me, I like plenty of terrible films and this just happens to be one of them.

I’m not going to try to convince anyone who is adamently opposed to this film that they should go and see it, because it’s not a movie that’s going to change anyone’s mind. If you’re even slightly interested in seeing Johnny English Strikes Again, then you should go for it. You will definitely get your monies worth by the time the end credits start to roll, but that’s because it’s a film that plays to its strengths. The thing is that these strengths are insubstantial. They’re nothing more than gimmicks and fluff. Rowan Atkinson does what he’s done a million times before and Johnny English is betting that audiences will want to pay money to see him do it yet again. However, his age starts to show a little in this film and he’s a little less physical with his comedy than he has been in the past. However, that just means he has to get a little more creative and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it only goes to show that we need more of him on the big screen while we still have the chance.