Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Ben Miller, Emma Thompson, Olga Kurylenko, Charles Dance, Adam James, Jake Lacy
Director: David Kerr
Release date: 5th October 2018
MI5 Headquarters in London has been hacked and all serving undercover agents’ identities have been released to the world. Unfortunately this leaves the Prime Minister (Emma Thompson) with little option, but to get an agent out of retirement that wouldn’t have featured in the hacked file. Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is now working as a Geography teacher and is more than a little surprised to get a letter from the Government asking for his services. First thing he does is reunite with his sidekick, Bough (Ben Miller), and the two acquire all the tools they think they’ll need for the job. They head to the South of France, and track the hacker to a luxury yacht called, “Dot Calm”. On investigating further, they meet a mysterious but dangerous woman. Who is she and how is she connected to all the subsequent hacks that are affecting the British way of life? English & Bough are on the case…
This is the third Johnny English movie to be released, with the first one coming out in 2003 and then this was followed by ‘Johnny English Reborn’ in 2011. The general premise of the movies is to parody British spies, particularly those such as James Bond. The first film grossed an incredible $160million dollars worldwide.
Okay… so I’ll be totally upfront and start by saying that I really disliked the first two movies.. It was the same with the whole ‘Mr Bean’ thing. It just didn’t make me laugh at all. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of Rowan Atkinson’s work, especially ‘Blackadder’, ‘Maigret’ and ‘Not the Nine O’clock News’, but I just found Johnny English to be kind of unfunny. I went into this new one with a certain amount of trepidation, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! The first face you see onscreen is the very lovely The Actor, Kevin Eldon and that kind of started as it meant to go on. There are a brilliant array of cameos throughout the movie, a lot of which will make you grin from ear to ear and then there’s the brilliant soundtrack that is an 80’s music lovers dream.
Rated as a PG, it’s definitely aimed at a more child friendly angle. There are absolutely loads and loads of very visual gags, which I think will keep any age entertained and it’s blatantly obvious that Rowan Atkinson hasn’t lost any of his comic timing. I was actually a little surprised by the PG rating for this movie but I guess the rating people know what they’re doing.
I readied myself not to enjoy this movie but actually quite enjoyed it. The story is a teeny but predictable but’s it’s not a bad thing in this movie’s case. A great family movie that you can take the kids out to at the weekend, give it a watch.
Overall: 7.5/10