Johnny English

Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is a bureaucratic employee of the British Secret Service, who dreams to be a charming agent. His dreams come true when all the British agents die, due to the lack of security in a funeral where he was the responsible. Johnny English, with the support of his assistant Bough (Ben Miller) and Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia), fights against the evil Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovitch), a powerful French who wants to be the king of the United Kingdom and transforms England in a great prison for all criminals of the world. This silly story is a very funny parody of 007 movies. Rowan Atkinson is very hilarious, as usual, and it is impossible not laughing with his stupidities. The singer Natalie Imbruglia is very beautiful, the unknown Ben Miller is the efficient assistant of Johnny English, and John Malkovitch, with a ridiculous French accent, complete the funny cast of this comedy. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): `Johnny English'

A funny spy parody that gives decent laughs. If you love Mr Bean you should love Johnny English it's really enjoyable and engaging I would recommend. After watching this you'll want to continue with the rest of the trilogy too.

A clumsy daydreamer by the name of Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson), who works for the Secret Spy Agency. When all the British Top Spies are killed, they asked Johnny to take over the case to investigate a mysterious rich evil french man by the name of Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich). Johnny's only help is from his loyal partner (Ben Miller) and a beautiful, mysterious spy woman (Natalie Imbruglia) could help bring Sauvage to Justice.

Directed by Peter Howitt (Anti-Trust, Laws of Attraction, Sliding Doors) made a entertaining comedy that spoofs the films of James Bond and The Naked Gun Trilogy. Atkinson is a delight and Malkovich is at his silliest role to date (He seems to have a real good time in this movie). The film's plot is surprisingly good but you wish, there is more laughs at times. Atkinson's fans won't be disappointed.

DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer (Also sharp in Pan & Scan transfer) and an good-Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD Extras are Deleted Scenes, Behind the Scenes Featurette and more. Kids will probably enjoy this more than the adults. Written by Neal Purvis (The World is Not Enough), Robert Wade (Die Another Day) and William Davies (Twins). (*** ½/*****).

The talented Rowan Atkinson expands his character from a series of TV adverts shown in the UK in the late 1990's onto the big screen.So does the transfer from two-minute sketches adapt successfully into feature-length narrative? The answer surprisingly is quite well,although the film does have flat spots and gags that somewhat misfire.The plot and incidents that take place are an obvious mixture and borrowing from the NAKED GUN and AUSTIN POWERS series of parodies,but what is refreshing is that the character of Johnny English is mostly free of the occasional mugging that was witnessed in the above films,and also Atkinson's MR BEAN creation,which was of course wordless but did sometimes engage in some rather messy slapstick.There is some messy slapstick here,but Atkinson's interpretation is closer to his greatest comic character of Edmund BLACKADDER,with his sometimes cynical and sarcastic tone,though he has traits of bumbling incompetence like Mr.Bean,though not total idiocy which makes English more sympathetic.A lower budget than the AUSTIN POWERS series means there are fewer elaborate set pieces,but some scenes work very well and there are some witty exchanges of dialogue.There's decent support from Natalie Imbruglia,Ben Miller and Tim Pigott-Smith,but John Malkovich is the most amusing as the villain with his cod French accent.It is encouraging to see a comedy which underplays it's scenes these days,rather than performers shouting and screaming in a desperate bid to force laughter out of an audience.That said,some scenes in the film don't always come off,perhaps because they are understated too much,but the best bits are very funny(especially the final scenes)and further sequels with this character would be most welcome.

I'm sorry I just can't dislike movies with Rowan Atkinson, he always makes me laugh no matter how bad the script is. If you're not a Rowan Atkinson fan you will probably be bored.