Johnny English Poster

Johnny English (2003)

Action | Comedy 
Rayting:   6.2/10 149.4K votes
Country: UK | France
Language: English | French
Release date: 10 April 2003

After a sudden attack on the MI5, Johnny English, Britain's most confident yet unintelligent spy, becomes Britain's only spy.

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User Reviews

Spleen 21 April 2003

It's not just that the jokes are funnier (there's one explicit poo joke, which is one too many, but still: it's just the one) or that Rowan Atkinson is a far better performer than Mike Myers, or anything comparatively trivial like that. No. The real difference is that "Johnny English" has its heart in the right place. Part of this difference is the fact that it has a heart at all.

English, unlike Powers, is not just a blank space in which the screenwriters can insert gags. He's a character. And there's more to the character than just clumsiness and pomposity. English is endearing because he's manifestly no fool. We know more than he knows, we see the banana skin immediately in front of his feet which he invariably fails to see, and in a way it's his fault he fails to see it himself, but his failure to see it is always something other than a failure of intelligence. He's easy enough to humiliate but, for some reason, hard to hoodwink. It's refreshing, too, that we're allowed to feel for him - when, for instance, he's dismissed from the case. We see Johnny English being devastated, not Rowan Atkinson trying to be funny.

Sure, it's not what it could have been. It's funny without being brilliantly so, and the satire (what there is of it) is on the blunt side. But these merely negative failings aren't enough to kill a film. Its biggest problem may be bad timing. When the script was being written, the anti-French sentiment must have seemed quaint and amusing, harmless because unreal; nobody could have predicted, surely, the sickening wave of hatred (the fact that it was all planned by the likes of Rupert Murdoch does not, alas, make the hatred any less real) that was shortly to sweep over the English-speaking world. Any joke about the French now has a sour taste at best.

jantoniou 2 September 2003

Fmovies: This is one of those movies peppered with those occasional gut-busting scenes that we have come to expect with a comic actor on the order of Atkinson, but is substantially more full of a lot of disposable humor in the form of English's bumbling; for example, going to the wrong building, going up the "poop shoot," Sauvage's coronation (which is probably the best/worst example of this) etc. It comes across as strained and ultimately worthless for comic effect. I despise the kind of humor that is stretched much too far to be funny. It is so telegraphed that mid-way through the movie you can invariably anticipate exactly WHAT he is bumbling into and whatever vague humor it had is butchered. It becomes excruciating.

I would, however, enjoy seeing this turn into a screen franchise for Atkinson--IF (and this is a big IF) they give him a solid screenplay to work with. The plot and characters were all fine--even Malkovich's purposefully ridiculous French accent (and clearly John M. is slumming for a few bucks in this one)--but the movie lacked vaguely consistent humor. The bumbling James Bond-ish character is a one-noter--Atkinson would be funnier in funny SITUATIONS (I daresay mini-"Bean"-type scenes peppered throughout the movie) that are not strained to reveal merely how bumbling and stupid he can be (yes, by 15 minutes into the movie we GET how bumbling English is - don't spend the entire movie explaining it to us again and again).

Comedy is tough to write and tougher to execute on - but Atkinson has the chops to handle it. He just needs the right material. There were a few gem moments and enough "chuckle humor" to make this a worthy rental. Imbruglia is respectable as his female counterpart -- and none too tough on the eyes. She could be an excellent female lead in a franchise.

filmfreak-5 2 September 2003

Hmm....what can be said about this film? I was amused many places, but the plotlines were so predictable you could tell all the things meant to be funny was about to happen, way before the climax of the amusement took place...sad, very sad....Johnny English is a strange character - he has his moments where he seems a little intelligent and he has a big talent for coming up with excuses, but apart from that, he is immensely stupid - stupid to a point where the fun stops. I know Rowan Atkinson spoke out that English was completely new character of his, but it is NOT - take Mr. Bean, add speaking lines and you've more or less got Johnny English. If he HAD to repeat his old characters, I would much rather see an agent of the Edmund Blackadder caliber! THERE would be something to have fun with!

I'd say that this is NOT one of Atkinson's better moments, and I actually think the picture is stolen by his agent male partner, of the flick - the rookie (I forget his name). He is toned down a lot but he is the one that made me laugh at several places, amongst others the lines "Are you coming over here in a minute, sir?". Won't spoil anything, but if you've seen the movie you know what I refer to.

But, if you're an Atkinson fan, like myself, go and see it. It's not horrible, but it's not fabolous either! Around average, nothing more, nothing less..

michaelchenma 30 August 2003

Johnny English fmovies. I wasn't a big fan of Rowan Atkinson and didn't have a lot of expectation out of this film, but it really cracked me up. First of all, you need to understand "Johnny English" is not a British version of "Austin Power". I found "A.P" ridiculous in general and didn't always appreciate their jokes. But Johnny English is one of those better made spy topic comedian films.

The best approach of watching this movie is to see it without a lot of expectation and I assure you that you will have a good time.

PlanecrazyIkarus 11 April 2003

Johnny English starts off a little bit like Bean: For some reason, wildly constructed, Rowan Atkinson ends up in a position that is far beyond his capabilities. Where Bean turns from Museum Guard to Museum curator impersonator, Johnny English turns from male Monneypenny-alike mission planner to James Bond replacement.

Sort of.

In a Bean kind of way, of course. Now that is where comparison with Bean should stop: Johnny English talks, for one thing, and doesn't just gesticulate around like a bit of a moron. And while he still causes a lot of trouble and shines in his incompetence, he manages to be far more charming and far less annoying than Mr Bean is in a 90 minute movie. Expect lots of visual humour, but also the odd moment of funny dialogue (the "making love" dialogue scene is quite hilarious)

The plot is standard Bond fare: A French tycoon is up to no good, stealing crown jewels and trying to become king of.... England, oddly enough. There is a Bond girl, played by Natalie Imbruglia and sharing more similarities with Sophie Yeoh's butt-kicking bond girl than with the more traditional damsel in distress. But unfortunately, there is no equivalent to Q, nor to M and the movie is a bit too much of a one-man show.

How does it fare then? On the laughter front it was quite satisfying, easily outmanoeuvering the once-too-often repeated Austin Powers, putting anything recent by Leslie Nielsen to shame and being an altogether fine Bond spoof. There is lots of slapstick (including the disgusting kind), but the movie manages to be less over the top and closer to Bond than to old National Lampoon / Mel Brooks movies.

Altogether the movie was pleasantly surprising - better than Bean (which isn't too hard, to be honest) and Austin Powers (although it is a different kind of spoof). Still not brilliant, but a good dose of old-fashioned entertainment. Pity the trailer gave away quite a lot of the best bits.

Plus, the bad guy was supposedly French, what more could you ask for?

pjs-48534 21 May 2018

Why on earth is this film rated so low?

Its an excellent comedy in its on right, in its own style. More for a younger audience, yes, but that shouldn't affect an objective rating.

My rating is based on the first time I saw it in the cinema, aged 14.

A silly film, yes, but not a significant step down in depth/quality on blackadder, for instance- as some claim.

Criticisms in the bad reviews are silly, irrelevant and non objective.

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