Johnny English Reborn review

Eight years after the first Johnny English movie, Rowan Atkinson returns to the role of the 007-style British spy who somehow manages to get the job done, despite being a rather bumbling buffoon. Having spent a few years in a Buddhist monastery after causing an international incident, Johnny is called back into action by MI7 boss Pegasus (Anderson). It seems a mysterious group called Vortex want to kill the Chinese premier, and for some reason Johnny may be the only man able to catch the bad guys and save the day.

Very much in the style of Austin Powers and The Naked Gun movies, but perhaps more aimed at younger audiences (there are no truly rude jokes here) than those, Johnny English Reborn romps along with some fun sight gags (a tree-chopping helicopter ride, and an enjoyably daft scene involving an office chair) and nice performances from Atkinson, Anderson, Pike (as an MI7 psychiatrist/possible love interest), a tongue-in-cheek West (as suave agent Simon Ambrose) and Daniel Kaluuya as Johnny’s new partner Tucker. What will let it down for grown-ups is the plot, however, which is just too simple – yes, we know it’s a comedy but that doesn’t mean we should guess who the double-crossing bad guy is before the opening credits have finished – and the script, which just isn’t silly or funny enough. Boys around the age of nine to 12 will be in hysterics, but anyone older than that will probably just be mildly amused.