To paraphrase from the last film "JOHNN ENGLISH STRIKES AGAIN couldn't hit a barn door with a banana!" Alas, JOHNNY ENGLISH STRIKES AGAIN is a complete missed opportunity and a true letdown for all die hard ENGLISH fans like me and my Mum.
The bar was set so high by the last couple of ENGLISH films but this third instalment has lived up to none of their comic or cinematic greatness. There is true comedy to be found at some points in the film but for the most part, JOHNNY ENGLISH STRIKES AGAIN combines silly, predictable jokes with borrowed material from the previous films. You will laugh at several moments in this film but you will soon forget the humour of it all with the clunky, half-baked script, the boring, predictable plot and castrated characters; the characters in this film have had all their heart and soul taken away and replaced with silly goo. It's nice to see Rowan Atkinson doing what he does best but all the heart, determination and daring that made English so great is gone, leaving a big, silly joke!
No one else hits the mark either; the villain offers no fun, no cackle, no suspense or true villainy, the main heroine is soon forgotten about even though so much is built around her and Bough (Ben Miller) is made to look pretty insignificant too! What this film needed was to bring back some of its previous stars like: Natalie Imbruglia or Rosamund Pike to jazz things up but sadly, things have been left dull and uncomplicated. What this film needed was also some MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-style, scale and spectacle! There was no true danger or daring to this film (unlike the previous movies) and the whole mission felt like a bad joke that anyone could have done.
Tis film was a real missed opportunity that had the potential of becoming something really fun but alas, the writers and directors have traded in both quantity as well as quality. A true disappointment, most of all to me and my Mum!
The bar was set so high by the last couple of ENGLISH films but this third instalment has lived up to none of their comic or cinematic greatness. There is true comedy to be found at some points in the film but for the most part, JOHNNY ENGLISH STRIKES AGAIN combines silly, predictable jokes with borrowed material from the previous films. You will laugh at several moments in this film but you will soon forget the humour of it all with the clunky, half-baked script, the boring, predictable plot and castrated characters; the characters in this film have had all their heart and soul taken away and replaced with silly goo. It's nice to see Rowan Atkinson doing what he does best but all the heart, determination and daring that made English so great is gone, leaving a big, silly joke!
No one else hits the mark either; the villain offers no fun, no cackle, no suspense or true villainy, the main heroine is soon forgotten about even though so much is built around her and Bough (Ben Miller) is made to look pretty insignificant too! What this film needed was to bring back some of its previous stars like: Natalie Imbruglia or Rosamund Pike to jazz things up but sadly, things have been left dull and uncomplicated. What this film needed was also some MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-style, scale and spectacle! There was no true danger or daring to this film (unlike the previous movies) and the whole mission felt like a bad joke that anyone could have done.
Tis film was a real missed opportunity that had the potential of becoming something really fun but alas, the writers and directors have traded in both quantity as well as quality. A true disappointment, most of all to me and my Mum!