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Poster (c) Universal Pictures
There are three types of British comedy. There’s the snooty unfunny type (Gosford Park), the funny one-liner type (Murder by Death), and pure slapstick (Johnny English). There’s no humor in Johnny English that isn’t slapstick. And shoot me, I fell for it! I laughed when English interrupted a funeral, I chuckled whenever English didn’t realize something, and, by Jove, I even cracked a smile when he was climbing up through a public latrine. It’s no Austin Powers, but Johnny English does its business (no pun intended) as yet another spoof of the spy genre and making us laugh.
Rowan Atkinson, who you may remember as the voice of Zazu in The Lion King or the narcoleptic from Rat Race, makes this work. No one else’s bumbling (and I mean BUMBLING) enough to take on the roll of Johnny English. Although he’s a bad actor, he portrays the right amount of camp to pull off this role. It’s because of Atkinson that this movie was a huge hit over in its country of the United Kingdom. If it had been someone else, the wacky charm of English wouldn’t work.
The lame brained plot had bumbling English as the lowest agent at MI7. However, when everyone else is killed, he’s the only man for the job of protecting the crown jewels, and, of course they’re stolen. He thinks that Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich) (where DO they get their names?), the man who donated money to help restore the jewels, did it, but doesn’t have proof, so he goes and tries to prove it. Along the way, the obligatory love interest is Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia, her movie career may be like her music career: a one-hit wonder).
I could live on slapstick humor. Although at times it’s crude (see opening paragraph), and there are quite a few lulls, with some jokes going on for too long, Johnny English is a great example of a non-summer summer movie. It’s foreign, it’s PG but not completely aimed towards kids, it doesn’t have huge stars, it isn’t animated, and it’s pretty funny. It’s a breath of relief from the barrage of action sequels we’ve been getting.
Rated PG for comic nudity, some crude humor, and language.
Review Date: July 18, 2003