Johnny English is a tired comedy, with stale and predictable gags. Consider the following example of outrageously unfunny verbal wit: "I think I'd rather have my bottom impaled on a giant cactus than exchange pleasantries with that jumped up Frenchman," says Johnny, unknowing that the 'jumped up Frenchman' is standing right behind him. It doesn't even raise the ghost of a smile. Rowan Atkinson should resign himself to the fact that his metier is as the silent Mr. Bean.
The film begins well enough, with an amusing daydream sequence, where Johnny English - pen-pusher at M17 (comic cousin of Britain's M16 spy agency) fantasises about his dangerous, dashing life if he were the notoriously brilliant Agent One. When Agent One, and the entire M17 spy corps are killed - through English's blunders - his dream becomes reality. It is up to him to save England from the machinations of a megalomaniac Frenchman, who wishes to claim the British throne and turn the country into a massive prison.
With a plot and characters like these, there is obviously the potential for Johnny English to be a humorous Bond-spoof, but the potential remains largely inactivated. There are occasional moments of genuine mirth, such as a hearse being chased by a tow truck, and the subsequent scene in the graveyard, but these are few and far between. The jokes are signposted a mile off, and include juvenile toilet humour. One does get the impression the scriptwriters were rather low on inspiration and in the resultant morass, one joke is even utilised twice. Ironically, the funniest moment of the movie is tacked on part way through the end credits, by which time most of the audience will have switched off in disappointment.
The film begins well enough, with an amusing daydream sequence, where Johnny English - pen-pusher at M17 (comic cousin of Britain's M16 spy agency) fantasises about his dangerous, dashing life if he were the notoriously brilliant Agent One. When Agent One, and the entire M17 spy corps are killed - through English's blunders - his dream becomes reality. It is up to him to save England from the machinations of a megalomaniac Frenchman, who wishes to claim the British throne and turn the country into a massive prison.
With a plot and characters like these, there is obviously the potential for Johnny English to be a humorous Bond-spoof, but the potential remains largely inactivated. There are occasional moments of genuine mirth, such as a hearse being chased by a tow truck, and the subsequent scene in the graveyard, but these are few and far between. The jokes are signposted a mile off, and include juvenile toilet humour. One does get the impression the scriptwriters were rather low on inspiration and in the resultant morass, one joke is even utilised twice. Ironically, the funniest moment of the movie is tacked on part way through the end credits, by which time most of the audience will have switched off in disappointment.