Johnny English starts off a little bit like Bean: For some reason, wildly constructed, Rowan Atkinson ends up in a position that is far beyond his capabilities. Where Bean turns from Museum Guard to Museum curator impersonator, Johnny English turns from male Monneypenny-alike mission planner to James Bond replacement.
Sort of.
In a Bean kind of way, of course. Now that is where comparison with Bean should stop: Johnny English talks, for one thing, and doesn't just gesticulate around like a bit of a moron. And while he still causes a lot of trouble and shines in his incompetence, he manages to be far more charming and far less annoying than Mr Bean is in a 90 minute movie. Expect lots of visual humour, but also the odd moment of funny dialogue (the "making love" dialogue scene is quite hilarious)
The plot is standard Bond fare: A French tycoon is up to no good, stealing crown jewels and trying to become king of.... England, oddly enough. There is a Bond girl, played by Natalie Imbruglia and sharing more similarities with Sophie Yeoh's butt-kicking bond girl than with the more traditional damsel in distress. But unfortunately, there is no equivalent to Q, nor to M and the movie is a bit too much of a one-man show.
How does it fare then? On the laughter front it was quite satisfying, easily outmanoeuvering the once-too-often repeated Austin Powers, putting anything recent by Leslie Nielsen to shame and being an altogether fine Bond spoof. There is lots of slapstick (including the disgusting kind), but the movie manages to be less over the top and closer to Bond than to old National Lampoon / Mel Brooks movies.
Altogether the movie was pleasantly surprising - better than Bean (which isn't too hard, to be honest) and Austin Powers (although it is a different kind of spoof). Still not brilliant, but a good dose of old-fashioned entertainment. Pity the trailer gave away quite a lot of the best bits.
Plus, the bad guy was supposedly French, what more could you ask for?
