The fact that I know that I've seen the original Johnny English, but can't remember anything about it probably tells you that it's not a film that has set my world alight.
However, it was a drizzly Sunday afternoon and this was the only thing that I either hadn't seen or was prepared to see...
The story is about former hapless MI7 agent Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) who after an incident in Mozambique was dismissed from the service.
English then goes on a retreat in Tibet to 'find himself', but is called back to London as he is the only agent that can foil a plot to kill the Chinese Prime Minister.
It transpires that there is a group of three people, two who are MI7 agents and one former CIA-agent who are paid assassins, going under the name Vortex. English needs to find who the group members are and prevent them from carrying out the assassination.
As you would expect, there is the untrusting Head of MI7, Pamela Thornton (Gillian Anderson), the suave fellow MI7 agent Simon Ambrose (Dominic West) and the love interest who is a behavioural psychologist, Kate Summers (Rosamund Pike).
You don't need me to tell you that English succeeds with the inevitable mishaps along the way. Neither do you need me to tell you that English's young sidekick Agent Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya) ends up working out who within MI7 are the traitors, but is dismissed by English.
Essentially, you go into the cinema knowing exactly what is going to happen. Despite this, the film is OK. There are quite a few laugh out loud moments courtesy of Atkinson, but you feel that he is being restricted in this role, which is a shame as he is a brilliant comedic actor.
The jokes are a bit obvious and repetitive, however I have sat through worse films this year.
Verdict: A film that when you are in a cinema full of kids, you find it funnier than it actually is. Atkinson is really not utilised and you know exactly where the film is going and how it gets there... Kids will love it and adults will find a few chuckle moments too.
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