Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are well know for their screenplay for James Bond movies(The World Is Not Enough & Die Another Day), comes out with another detective adventure in Johnny English. Rowen Atkinson as Johnny English plays the role of a Secret Agent working for MI-7 (remember MI-6). Director Peter Howitt has had a complete change of track from his previous Intense Drama stuff, to a Comic Movie.
Plot :
Johnny English takes a lot of the ideas from James Bond movie, being a detective movie in itself, but calling it a spoof, would be a denunciation of the Screenplayers and the Director.
Johnny English starts with death of a MI-7 agent, whose job is reassigned to Johnny. The job is that of protecting the Crown Jewels, from the hands of criminals. English messes up the job and the crown jewels get stolen.
By virtue of his incredible fortune, he always gets close to the Jewels and its Thief but for his idiotism, never achieves to capture either of them.
With the help of his deputy Bough(Ben Miller) and agent Lorna Campbell(Natalie Imbruglia) he finds the reason behind the stealing of crown jewel was to convert England in to a Prison. Then what we have is a hilarious ending to a idiotic movie.
Tech Details :
Peter Howitt, the director has done wonderful job to an ordinary script. Screenplay, could only be summed to an average rating, doing well only in a couple of scenes. Editing by Robin Sales been excellent. Theme music is done by Bond.
Attraction :
Performance by Rowen Atkinson.
Two scenes especially, The Graveyard and The Final Climax Scene.
Flaws :
Weak Plot, always Reminds of James Bond, with Jazzy Car and Remindfull Pen.
Few Quotes :
Johnny : ’’The only thing the French can play host is invasion’’.
Johnny : ’’Between you and me I hate French myself’’.
Johnny : ’’So I was wrong about the Archbishops Ass’’.
Verdict :
Good to see once. Excellent if watched on a Rented Video or on HBO. At theater, spending 200 bucks, movie feels like a waste.
But ................ its fine. - ’’An After-Thought’’