Johnny English Reborn

The first Johnny English made its debut in theaters in 2003 and 8 years later they decided to release a sequel. “Johnny English Reborn” revolves around a clumsy MI7 agent named Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) and his adventures. After a botched mission in Mozambique, we find Johnny blacklisted from MI7 and in a Tibetan monastery training as a monk until he is called back to England to help them prevent the assassination of a Chinese government official. With the help of his new assistant , Agent Tucker (Mariella Kaluuya), the pair sets out to solve the mystery of who’s behind the assassination attempt and try their best to prevent it from happening.

The few things I did enjoy about this movie were the picture quality, music, extras and camera shots. The picture quality was really sharp and looked great on my TV. The music was actually really good and one of the few things that kept me awake during the movie. This Blu-ray was loaded with extras, such as deleted scenes, a gag reel, director commentary, and lots of behind-the-scenes footage and featurettes. Lastly, the scenic camera shots of Hong Kong, Tibet, and Switzerland were amazing and this movie made me want to visit those locations even more.

The things I did not enjoy about this movie were the actual story, the movie length, and a majority of the jokes. “Johnny English Reborn” just did not feel original and felt like a bad carbon copy of either “Austin Powers” or “Get Smart,” Johnny English felt more like a love child between Mr. Bean and Mr. Magoo and the name James Bond should not even be mentioned in the same sentence. The story was a bit dry and predictable and the exotic locations were the only saving grace for the film. Also, I felt the movie was way too long and dragged on after the first 30 minutes. Lastly, most of the jokes were a hit or a huge miss, with a majority being the latter. I tried hard to like the movie because I grew up watching Mr. Bean, but most of the jokes were out of place and aimed more towards the younger audiences.

A supposed comedic movie with few good jokes is usually not a good recipe for any successful movie. I enjoyed watching the assassins and there were some good jokes in the movie, but not enough to make this a memorable experience. I like Roawn a lot more as Mr. Bean as opposed to Johnny English because when Johnny opens his mouth, nothing funny usually comes out. For those reasons, I am giving this movie a “C-.”