Review of Johnny English Strikes Again (2018) by Deben71 — 29 Aug 2023

Rowan Atkinson (and his sidekick Boff) struggle to deliver a few funny scenes, but the task of bringing an empty page to life isn't an easy one.

There's also an ex-James Bond Girl, but hey, she's only allowed a few poor minutes in the end and bits of scenes where her character sucks, when she brings the tablet there you can see that the actress understood that it sucks and she absolutely doesn't give a **** anymore.

The real there is not just a stranger out of nowhere, we are at the level of the jobber, good classic plans we will not ask for more but good failed lighting and backlighting!!!

Atkinson as a knight in the arcade, I had to check my contrast on my television, no no it's well and truly poorly lit....

But everything else is worth it, the script is useless, the protagonists are not worked, the villain is useless.

7 years separates the 3 from the 2 and there is only emptiness, Atkinson who is recognized as a pain in the smallest details apparently had no say and the film is cut from many scenes, hole editing ass or **** production, you have the choice.

My part on P. Sellers and B. Edwards.

What makes me wince is a long finale (because it's rhythmic like... heuuu no actually not rhythmic at all) where Atkinson is in knight's armor with all the movement problems that entails, I don't know if it's a tribute (yes finally a copy) to Peter Sellers or not at all, but hey it's not Blake Edwards behind the camera and in terms of comic genius it's not Peter Sellers in armor (I specify that I like Atkinson).

Peter Sellers with Blake Edwards knew how to make moments without speed or even very slow very very good and fun, with a classic realization of course but which relied just on the character, his bad luck and his way of getting up even very slowly from what he suffered was funny, we took the time to savor the misfortune of Clouseau (see also Hrundi V. Bakshi in The Game).

In the end, it makes me think of Jackie Chan's Smoking, who is also a failure who doesn't know how to exploit his main character or the other protagonists (Jenifer Love Hewitt), but much less worse than here.