Review of Johnny English (2003) by Luis V — 05 Aug 2011

A hilarious movie! Rowan Atkinson plays the role of the title character in this flat-out comedy. He is an inept worker at the British Intelligence dreaming of one day becoming Agent One. Suddenly all the agents are mysteriously killed. As Johnny investigates he realizes that Pascal Savage is behind this all along. He is a descendant of William the Conqueror, and believes that the British throne should be his and not the Queen. His plot is to become king of England and turn the country into a giant prison. Johnny meets and falls in love with Lorna whom is an Interpol Agent. Together they must stop this devious plan!

This film is terrible, but it doesn't matter because it only serves as a comedy. When I watched this film as a kid, I loved it! Truly hilarious, now I view this film as a stupid, pathetic attempt to parody the James Bond series. This film has only one purpose, to make you laugh, and it reached its goal. Sure it has a lot of stupid scenes that ruined this movie but is still acceptable. This film is for kids and only for kids because only they will find this movie funny. What I like about this movie is the pacing. It didn't over-expose itself, it wasn't annoying, but it was just Johnny English and that's it. I mean I love the opening music of this movie. The film does show sympathy, charisma and respect towards the James Bond series. I laughed out-loud at Rowan's performance, if you don't find this man funny then don't watch this movie because he brings entertainment to this movie. Just watch the intro to this movie, and if you're not into it then you are going to hate this movie.

Is the film smart and compelling? No, obviously not. This film is a complete opposite of a smart movie. There's wasn't any memorable dialogue, and less a good plot for this movie. The problem with spoof and parody movies is that they don't bring anything new to the table. It is basically what we have seen before in other movies, but that doesn't mean that the movie is a complete and total disaster. This film does parody the Bond movies, but it shows absolutely nothing else except really dumb scenes. For example there's a scene in which the bad guys are forcing the Queen to give up the throne. She denies, but then she gives up the throne simply because they threatened to kill her pet if she didn't. That scene is one of the most retarded scenes in a comedy, I have ever seen in my life. The ending to me was not a right ending for this movie, in my point of view.

This film was directed by Peter Howitt whom hasn't directed lot of movies as what I have heard. I also heard that there is a sequel coming out and I completely against it because if this movie is bad, the sequel is going to be a disaster. Is this a must-see movie? Nope, but hey you have a good time watching the movie, you start to like the characters, but after you watch it, you know you have seen a piece of crap. Is not a film to be respected, since it only puts the spy genre to shame. It does have gags that completely ruin the film but still satisfactory.

I can only recommend this movie only to people that want to laugh. What I mean is that if you are looking for a movie that only purpose is to make you laugh then you are going to like this one. I think this movie is good for the family, specifically with the kids, because the adults will be bored at it. Don't watch this movie if you can't handle comedy with idiotic plots, because you will be angry with this movie.