Johnny English Reborn (2011) Review

"Dear God, let me not die at the hands of the Swiss."

-Johnny English

After horribly failing a mission in Mozambique, Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) was dismissed from MI7.  Years later, MI7 catches wind of a plot to assassinate the Chinese Premier, but their only lead, Titus Fisher (Richard Schiff) will only meet with English.  MI7 is forced to bring English back into service and the agent quickly becomes the only one that can stop the sinister plot, as one of the villains may be an MI7 agent as well.

What Works;

The first Johnny English film was released before the Daniel Craig-era of the Bond films, but Reborn came out after Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, which gives this sequel a lot of material to work with.  The Craig-films are very different from the rest of the Bond films, so Reborn has a darker story.  We actually see a few people get murdered, including one at the hands of Johnny English himself.  This gives this sequel a purpose and it's not just a unnecessary cash-grab, which I appreciate.

This film parodies the phenomenal parkour sequence in Casino Royale, where Bond uses brute force to chase after an acrobatic terrorist.  In Reborn, we get English causally strolling after the acrobatic villain, hardly breaking a sweat and still managing to keep up.  It's a hilarious sequence and a rare moment where English is actually competent.  It's a fantastic parody and a lot of fun.

I also love that the main assassin of the film is an elderly woman, who English repeated confuses with other elderly women.  English beats up a lot of elderly women in this film and it's hilarious.  The reactions from the other characters are fantastic and the more it happens, the funnier it gets.

The 3rd act is actually pretty exciting.  The final fight between English and Simon Ambrose (Dominic West) takes place in a cable car and feels like a classic Bond sequence.  It's funny, intense, and ultimately badass.

What Sucks:

Reborn does suffer the same problem the original film does in that not all of the humor work.  Most of the scenes with Kate Sumner (Rosmund Pike) just fall flat.  It has nothing to do with Pike, who I love, but the direction they chose to go with for the jokes.  The hypnotism scene isn't really funny and Pike kissing English back to life is worthy of many eye-rolls.

Having a darker story mixed with the slapstick humor is a very difficult thing to pull off, but for the most part, Reborn succeeds, but there are some parts where they go too far into the slapstick.

Finally. there are points where English is too much of an idiot.  He's a clumsy guy who constantly makes problems worse for himself by trying to cover them up.  He's not the brightest bulb on the tree, but he's not a complete idiot.  The scene where Ambrose convinces English he is not working for Vortex is far too unbelievable, even for a Johnny English movie.  He is so easily convinced and turns on his partner, Colin Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya), way too quickly.  He's a real jerk to Colin, which really comes out of nowhere.  The whole scene doesn't really work and fails to match the rest of the film.

Verdict:

Johnny English Reborn is a mild improvement over the original film.  It does a great job parodying the Daniel Craig films with some excellent sequence, hilarious moments, and a darker story.  It has a lot of the same problems as the original with some some flat humor, tonally awkward moments, and one scene in particular where they go too far with English's buffoonery, but, for the most part, this movie has got it going on and is a solid sequel.

 7/10: Good