I no longer expect too much of movies, All I ask of a comedy is that it makes me laugh...This movie not only NOT make me laugh, it made me groan, I would rather have a 24 hour case of the flu then see this garbage again Why? Let’s delve into the mediocrity...
Acting
These are the primary accomplices of a crime of a film
Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson)
Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich)
deputy Bough (Ben Miller)
Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia)
I generally think Rowan Atkinson is a funny guy (esp in the movie Mr Bean) but his comedy in my view is based on TIMING and ORIGINALITY. In Johnny English, all of the sight gags are cliched’ and mis-timed and Rowan talks way too much! If he were funny when he talks I wouldnt mind but he was not even close to funny in Johnny English.
John Malkovich plays the bad guy in the film, and he must have been forced by gunpoint to be in it. He looks like he doesnt care, and it shows in his indifferent performance.
Natalie Imbruglia doesnt say anything funny and looks lost, but at least she is not as annoying as Malkovich and Atkinson.
Ben Miller is the straight man to Atkinson’s ’’funny’’ one so he doesn’t get to do much. He is not terrible.
Plot
You know, the plot itself is not that bad. After a accident takes the lives of all of England’s top secret agents, Johnny English, a bumbling deskbound spy is sent to guard the Crown Jewels. They get stolen under his nose, and Johnny English and his deputy get sent after the evil man who stole them. The rest of the movie describes the chase of the villain and the jewels.
The problem is that is was supposed to be a comedy, and I was supposed to LAUGH. I did not laugh once. While it is true I have seen a lot of movies, I predicted around 75% of Johnny English’s jokes and sight gags before they happened, so I ended up bored.
Example: Johnny English and his deputy are sky diving on top of the enemy HQ to see if a computer program is there. When they jump out of the plane, they see 2 identical buildings. Since we know that Johnny English is a bumbler, we know he is going to choose the wrong building. The kicker is, it takes them 5 minutes to tell you he is in the wrong building, for me I lost intrest for 5 minutes, because that is how long the movie spent trying to tell me something I already knew!!!
All in All, Johnny English was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Avoid it at all costs. Even the kids in the theater thought it was boring...That is saying something.