Johnny English Reborn

Is it a bad sign if I wanted to fall asleep during it?

Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson aka Mr. Bean) is retired from his spy duties after a failed mission, until he is summoned by MI-7 to help stop assassins from killing the Chinese premier. He is a bumbling and over confident spy that seems to be of no use but yet still somehow finds a way to save the day.

Have you ever seen the movies Naked Gun, Austin Powers or Pink Panther? Stick with those movies. While I found Rowan Atkinson’s previous work as Mr. Bean to be funny and charming in an awkward, but humorous way, I found this movie to be not really funny at all and couldn’t wait for it to be over. Many of the jokes are the same as the aforementioned movies, which are all paying homage to the spy genre and more specifically Bond movies. Gillian Anderson who plays English’s superior adds nothing to the film and the chemistry throughout is just off. Johnny English Reborn is a sequel to its 2003 predecessor; I’m thinking they may have wanted to stop there.

Motherly Advice: I had most of my filters set to Medium but for language I chose Most filtering. With slapstick comedy comes silly stupid humor. The violence that is seen is mostly anything but serious but does include a couple of older ladies mistaken for being an assassin assaulted. Johnny who is lucky to find a woman that finds his quirks attractive is in her apartment at one point only in his underwear; and in another scene the two share a kiss. A woman in a bikini is shown briefly while getting into a hot tub with Johnny but the scene doesn’t progress beyond that. Using his so called “Martial Arts” skills Johnny takes on the bad guys during fighting scenes and also uses various spy weapons that he rarely knows how to properly use. Some explosions and other weaponry are used by the villains and a couple of characters die. A drink is seen spiked with a drug that is used to control the mind of its victim and command them to do whatever you would like. I would suggest at least age 10 and up due some of the content.

Hannah – Please don’t make a third one!

Rated PG for mild action violence, rude humor, some language and brief sensuality; 101 min; Directed by Oliver Parker