Johnny English Reborn (2011)
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 85
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 53
Arguably a marginal improvement on its mostly-forgotten predecessor, Johnny English Reborn nonetheless remains mired in broad, tired spy spoofing that wastes Rowan Atkinson's once considerable comedic talent.
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 12
Arguably a marginal improvement on its mostly-forgotten predecessor, Johnny English Reborn nonetheless remains mired in broad, tired spy spoofing that wastes Rowan Atkinson's once considerable comedic talent.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 36,665
Movie Info
In the years since MI7's top spy vanished off the grid, Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) has been honing his unique skills in a remote region of Asia. But when his agency superiors learn of an attempt against the Chinese premier's life, they must hunt down the highly unorthodox agent. Now that the world needs him once again, Johnny English is back in action. With one shot at redemption, he must employ the latest in hi-tech gadgets to unravel a web of conspiracy that runs throughout the KGB, CIA
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Cast
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Rowan Atkinson
Johnny English -
Gillian Anderson
Pamela, Pamela Thornton -
Rosamund Pike
Kate, Kate Sumner -
Dominic West
Ambrose, Special Agent ... -
Daniel Kaluuya
Agent Tucker, Tucker -
Richard Schiff
Fisher -
Togo Igawa
Ting Wang -
Tim McInnerny
Quartermain -
Lobo Chan
Xiang Ping -
Wale Ojo
President Chambal -
Lim Pik-Sen
The Killer Cleaner -
Williams Belle
Ling -
Janet Whiteside
Pegasus' Mother -
Mark Ivanir
Karlenko -
Josephine de la Baume
Madeleine -
Stephen Campbell Moore
Prime Minister -
Burn Gorman
Slater -
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Johnny English Reborn Trailer & Photos
All Critics (86) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (53) | DVD (1)
Atkinson revives the comic secret agent that he first introduced in a series of TV ads in the UK, but this thin script gives him nothing remotely like a rebirth.
Top CriticJohnny English Reborn is funny enough to make you laugh and plausible enough, in an exploding-umbrella type of way, to make you care.
At gunpoint I might confess to smiling when English pummeled the Queen of England with a tea tray, but the babysitters for the target audience will know that his best bits are burgled from Austin Powers.
It would seem to appeal mostly to hard-core fans of the "Mr. Bean'' star and children who laugh at the sight of men being repeatedly kicked in the groin.
Joke after joke falls painfully flat. Stay home and introduce your kids to Mr. Bean, instead.
The humor isn't as dual-edged as, say, a Pixar comedy. But director Oliver Parker knows his genre well enough to lampoon the mainstays of the spy-flick genre, from impossibly high-tech weapons to foot chases worthy of Olympic medals.
"English Reborn" isn't terrible and is certainly seriously harmless...But it does remind one of the glorious past and the potential Atkinson never realized in his movies, even the hit ones.
What the film really needed was an injection of comedy that plays to Atkinson's strengths. He's a funny guy, but this material just isn't worthy of him.
Austin Powers, this is not, and I suppose that's what most people would have been expecting when they saw it.
It's really the directing in this film that really fouls it all up.
With a nod to Mr. Bean, Johnny English Reborn delivers comedy in any language.
If you like Rowan Atkinson you will like the movie; if you don't then you won't. I am in the anti-Atkinson camp.
It does contain almost enough laughs to make it worth the ticket price. Falling a tad short, I would suggest adding it to the Netflix queue instead.
The under-12s in the theater seemed to enjoy it immensely.
He's priceless, no matter how many Mr. Bean episodes he's made.
To be fair, it's a shade better than the dreary movie that preceded it.
Other than being family-friendly, Johnny English Reborn has only a handful of chuckles to recommend it.
Reborn is more of a spiritual title. Everything else in this silly but draggy comedy is pure rehash.
While I wouldn't recommend paying full admission price, you could do worse flipping past it on a rainy Saturday afternoon at home while looking for family entertainment. (Movie Review for Parents also available)
Just a reasonably steady stream of closed-mouth chuckles over comic incidents designed for that laziest little compartment of your brain.
Especially considering the meandering storylines of today's uninspired remakes and sequels, this movie is keenly focused on what it's trying to do.
Audience Reviews for Johnny English Reborn
There are some chuckles to be had here and I guess the film should get marks for never taking itself too seriously; but even the chuckles come from worn sight gags and a sense for the absurd that never gives the screenplay any hope of being anything but an elongated skit.
The film starts well enough as we hear that some spy who came in from the cold wants to give some very important info to MI7, but insists on only talking to Johnny English who was fired from the spy corp for bungling some mission or other. We then see Johnny in China, doing a laughable Kung Fu sequence as he learns the deep mystic ways. OK, so he's in the orient... and then he's called back into service so he returns to England so he can.... Wait for it... meet with the aforementioned spy in ..... yep, China. Yikes. Way to rack up those frequent flier miles!
It's this kind of lazy writing that truly derails the film; but if you just take this all at face value and say - yeah, ok, make me laugh a little - then the film will work on some remote, juvenile, don't think too hard, level.
Of course this is meant as a farce, but usually in even a farce there is a hidden level of either dark comedy or a poking at the mores and values of the time - I suppose that in the broad sense the mere spoofing of the beloved spy genre could be construed as such, but really, that's a pretty broad assumption. In actuality what you have here is a good natured G rated film that really doesn't offend anyone and has one or two truly laughable moments (as when the "cleaner" assassin takes to the golf course, with her bag turning into a large caliber machine gun).
I suppose that I should not have tread here in the first place, as I didn't much care for Rowan Atkinson's other works (sorry there Mr. Bean), but somehow I had a vague recollection of the first film and since I was in the mood for something whipped cream light and sorta funny... well it was just as advertised... not awful but certainly not worth delving into further (like the misplaced "buddy" aspect, or the "you can't be serious" G rated love interest that the film throws in for apparent good measure).
Super Reviewer
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- Johnny English: Pegasus, we have another lead! Vortex was in Mozambique. They were responsible for the death of President Chambal.
- Pamela Thornton: No! You were responsible for the death of President Chambal.
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- Pamela: You lose our only lead on Vortex, humiliate me in front of the Foreign Secretary, and try to kill my mother.
- Pegasus' Mother: Twice!
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- Johnny English: Come off it, Fisher. You, a paid assasin? You couldn't even hit a barn door with a banana.
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- Prime Minister: Not in the same league as the first film and no Bough. These two had great chemestry.
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- Agent Tucker: Sir, I don't think he's a Susan
- Johnny English: Well your not a linguist Tucker, are you? It's pronounced Shu-Shang, from the Zingzhou region I presume.
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- Johnny English: It can't be!
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Movie: ID: 771220874 Title: Johnny English Reborn Release Date: 2011-10-21 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 2 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Johnny English - Jetzt erst recht (DE)
- Johnny English, le retour (FR)
