For an activeness-one-act flick, Johnny English Strikes Again contains remarkably niggling action. Some would argue it also contains little one-act. As much every bit I dear this franchise (and other genre spoofs similar Spy and Austin Powers), it'southward difficult to vouch for this threequel when the plot and many of its jokes are exact copies of those seen in the movie's ii predecessors. Thankfully, some excellent performances and a handful of express joy-out-loud moments rescue this from being a complete English cock-upward.

Strikes Again sees Johnny (Rowan Atkinson) once again brought out of retirement to aid Her Majesty'south Hugger-mugger Service in its fight against a cyberterrorist threat wreaking havoc with the United Kingdom's infrastructure. He's joined past old friend Bough (Ben Miller) as they investigate the source of the attacks, and over the film's 88-minute running time the pair bumble their way through London, southern France, and northern Scotland with all the glamor and mode you lot'd expect from a James Bond wannabe. In response to the cyber-threat, English eschews technology for fear of beingness tracked, and then MI7'due south smartphones and hybrid cars are out, and trusty quondam handguns and Aston Martins are in. But the motion picture generally foregoes activeness and fight scenes in favor of contrived slapstick, to mixed success.

Want us to think this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in at present!

Delight use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can't access this content!

Now Playing: Johnny English language Strikes Again - Official Trailer #two

Along the way, Bough and English language must deal with a hapless Prime Minister (Emma Thompson), femme fatale Ophelia (Olga Kurylenko), and Silicon Valley billionaire Jason Volta (Jake Lacy). While Thompson demonstrates her acting pedigree with a nuanced performance far better than her lines should allow and Kurylenko does her best with a thin character, Volta is totally listless equally a villain. He intends to control the data of the world's 12 major nations, but quite why he wants this information is never revealed, and in whatsoever case a plot surrounding a G12 summit surrendering control of the public'due south browsing history doesn't make the near riveting framework for a picture show produced, at least in part, for children. It's The Phantom Menace's separatist trade agreements all over again.

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Distressing, merely you lot can't access this content!

Lacy does lilliputian to help Volta's abstract, anaemic threat. His performance is neither intimidating enough for us to accept him seriously equally a villain, nor over-the-top and camp enough to be a great comedy baddie, and this makes the inevitable victory for English feel like a dud moment. That victory is painted as a win for tradition, physicality, honor, and integrity over applied science and data and other such modern phenomena, and this is a theme revisited time and once more throughout the picture show. Strikes Again attempts to make a indicate in its finale--computers are bad, kids--but the result is dulled by English language's heroic moment relying on not one but ii pieces of modern tech. You know, to defeat the Zuckerbergian tech behemothic. Combined with an extended, over-explained VR sequence and a lengthy scene featuring English dancing to Darude'due south Sandstorm, Strikes Again screams of a mid-life crunch writing room desperately attempting to remain relevant.

Thankfully, Atkinson is on fine class, and his outstanding performance consistently entertains, despite the dated jokes he has to play with. Yous can ofttimes see the punchlines coming a mile off, merely when you have possibly the best concrete comedian since Charlie Chaplin, it'south hard not to laugh anyway. He perfectly walks the line between dramatic gravitas and slapstick silliness and carries an otherwise poor flick entirely on his back. Thompson's scenes are as well worth remembering, as she does her best impression of a head of land desperate to retain control in the face of chaos, but this is home territory for Atkinson, and he takes full advantage.

Kurylenko and Miller are underutilized, however. Ophelia has plenty of screen time just few memorable scenes or lines, and Bough never quite achieves the aforementioned chemical science with English the pair managed in the 2003 original. Equally a result, English'southward character isn't examined as closely as he is in either of the previous films, despite some half-hearted attempts to show him every bit a more fleshed-out character than he might initially appear. There is potential there, simply a throwaway misogynist comment about Bough's married woman is not the way to realize information technology.

No Caption Provided

Gallery

Gallery image 1 Gallery image 2

All of this leaves a moving picture that feels like a missed opportunity. Strikes Once again simply isn't every bit funny equally its predecessors. It presents a deadening villain, asks us to care nigh data privacy, and relies on tired, cliched jokes--surely comedy has surpassed laughing at an one-time woman with thick glasses who tin't bulldoze?

Despite its numerous problems, I enjoyed Johnny English Strikes Once again. It has moments of great comic timing from Atkinson, some good old fashioned interim from Emma Thompson, and a consistent sense of style--crucially, information technology grasps that beingness a spy is absurd, and doesn't hesitate to bear witness the states and then. And what's more English than looking libation than you are?

The Good The Bad

Atkinson is a master of physical one-act, and he's in fine grade here

Old, cliched jokes that have been washed before and whose punchlines are telegraphed
Emma Thompson works wonders with an average script

Boring excuse for a villain delivers no sense of danger or fun

Some genuinely funny moments, and English language remains cool despite his failings

Familiar friends return, just their relationships are underdeveloped

Plot is an insipid mess and major characters' motivations are never truly believable