Johnny English Strikes Again

Johnny English Strikes Again, the third installment in the Johnny English franchise is a spoof comedy that sort of relies heavily on the leading man Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean charm and explores very little of spoof. The less than 90 minutes long movie does offer moments of laughter to its viewers. But the longevity of the humor isn’t that great and thus Johnny English is a comfortable passable flick with nothing overly great about it.

So Mr. English, who is now working as a teacher gets the intimation from the agency to report as the identity of all its existing agents got compromised through an online hacking. So Johnny is given the task of finding who was behind this act and how he eventually does that is what Johnny English Strikes Again dealing with.

The spoof is a genre that is tough to be peculiar and difficult to review. I am saying this because even a faulty plot could well be interpreted as an attempt to be a spoof. If any of you have seen the trailer, you might have noticed the witty elements like VR, missiles against cyclists, male show off going wrong, magnetic boots etc. All these things are really funny and it would be a big lie if I say that those didn’t make me laugh. I enjoyed it for that time being, but there is a scarcity for more such jokes or jokes that are better than that. Apart from the usual Bond movie spoofing, here we have Johnny English taking a dig at movies like Iron Man and even Wolf of Wall Street (partially). You will be giggling mostly and occasionally there will also be laugh out loud moments, but the chances of remembering one scene and raving about it are pretty less.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoWjFKpFbMQ/

Rowan Atkinson’s Johnny English is mostly an extension of his iconic character Mr. Bean. The physicality of the actor along with those expressions does make the part definitely funny. And it is a confusing thing to blame him for being more like Mr. Bean as my intention to watch the movie was to have some good laugh and Mr. Bean is undeniably a character that can assure that. Olga Kurylenko plays the role of Ophelia and the consistent smoldering look she gives is sort of fitting for the spoof. Ben Miller reprises the role of Bough. Emma Thomson, Jake Lacy, and Adam James are the other important names here.

David Kerr is focusing more on the humor in the sequence rather than the humor in the narrative. As I said, Johnny English Strikes Again isn’t at all a boring movie. But it just isn’t absorbing or memorable. It doesn’t give much significance for its antagonist and for a large portion we aren’t even clear about what the conflict is. It is investing too much on its jokes that we lose track of the plot. The VR sequence could well become a hit YouTube clip and the fuel efficiency joke was a smart one. Johnny English movies aren’t that interested in being praiseworthy series of mocking movies. The purpose has always been to offer that momentary escapism without the viewer thinking much about the quality of it.

Rowan Atkinson does his bit to make Johnny English Strikes Again an entertaining laughter riot and because of him, you won’t regret watching the movie. It’s a passable spy spoof with discrete moments of laughter.

Rating: 2.5/5