Movies.
We packed ourselves into the car and, after half an hour, arrived at the cinema complex. After a brief look through the list of current films and a quick vote that ended in my becoming dictator of the group and shooting several people for their views (kidding!), we decided to either go for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 or Johnny English Reborn.
Due to my skill as a dictator and the fact that I'd already seen Harry Potter with other friends, we bought tickets to Johnny English Reborn.
I've had my eye on seeing Johnny English for a while now, ever since everyone but me saw the original Johnny English and told me how good it was. (Matt, Evil, I'm looking at you here! I shall now gloat my victory to your many digitalised FACES!) Therefore I seized the chance to see the second with both hands.
* * *
The story is set five years after Johnny left MI7. English has retreated to the Tibetan mountains, where he has joined a warrior-monk place (what do you call them?), where he is trying to forget his past life. Training consists of much pain, mental stuff and brief visits to his mentor, the old master of the warrior-monk place (need to work out what they call those places). Suddenly, MI7 recalls English into their services and sends him on a new mission to investigate a plot to kill some chinese dignitary. Assisted by Agent Tucker, he delves into a world of assassins, keys and crime. As he investigates, he realises that he must dig into his own past to find answers.
What happened in Mozambique five years ago? What is Vortex? And why on Earth does anyone want to use English for the job?
* * *
This is a funny, whole-hearted film that is very good fun to watch. With Rowan Atkinson as English again, things are brilliantly are very well acted. Whoever wrote this is wonderfully thought out, with irony and simple Rowan Atkinson-esque acting and humour at the heart of the comedy. As well as being very funny, there are a fair few good action sequences mixed in with a pinch of romance (bleurgh). Themes include trust and friendship.
The story itself jumps around a little bit, with sudden changes of scenery (eg somewhere to Britain, Britain to somewhere that I can't remember but know it was a fair way away) that annoy you a little bit. However, this stabilises in the latter half of the film.
Possibly the best thing about this film is the mix of comedy and action. And I don't mean it's got a balance of comedy scenes and action scenes, I mean it's got a great amount of funny-ness and kick-ass kung-fu fighting in the same scenes. This leads to some tense atmospheres being completely shattered by Rowan Atkinson's face going ape or an anvil falling out of the sky and crushing something in an exceedingly funny manner. (I never said these things happen in the film!)
* * *
Now to the paragraph(s) you have all been waiting for.
To me, this film is a very light piece of entertainment with some good fighting sequences and old-fashioned Rowant Atkinson-esque humour written through it all the way to the end. The only things I have against it are the facts that the location changes a little too often and there are certain jokes that are carried on a little too long.
My favourite scene from this film must have been the bit where English is chasing some awesomely athletic Asian guy. Wrought with clever humour and some fairly impressive stunts, I think this scene should be filed as one of the cleverest action sequences in the film industry.
I shall give this film a seven and a half. It's very funny, got some good action and sticks in my head for some of its originality, but some of the jokes have no coherence with the rest of the film and the capture of one of the main baddies is left until the very very very end, which annoys me sincerely. However, I would have no qualms about seeing this film again, or being given it as a present by anyone. Though I have other things on my Christmas list so far.
As yet, this film is unavailable for purchase, but I enclose the Amazon link below anyway:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Johnny-English-Reborn-Rowan-Atkinson/dp/B005NYLJSK/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1318853193&sr=1-4
No comments:
Post a Comment