Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Olga Kurylenko, Emma Thompson, Jake Lacey, Charles Dance, Ben Miller, Miranda Hennessy, Adam James, Irena Tyshna, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Adam Greaves-Neal.
Rowan Atkinson will always be considered one of the finest pursuers of comedy truth that the U.K. has been blessed with nurturing, supporting and enjoying, of that simple fact there can be no doubt, no argument and yet as time goes on it is possible to wish he would concentrate his considerable talents on the straight television drama, or theatrical endeavour. As his time occupying the role of Inspector Maigret has proved, his talent for empathy, for the understanding of what drives certain men in the periods they live in is just as keenly honed as his notable characters of Edmund Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and the inept but ultimately decent Johnny English have been explored.
It is to Johnny English that the veteran comic returns, and in his third outing as the hapless British spy, Johnny English Strikes Again, the understanding of the character is not to be faulted, after all he has been playing him in one form or another for decades, what is at stake is the comedian himself, Britain’s much loved and adored clown, the natural successor in many ways to Jacques Tati, is in danger of only being remembered for the way he made a nation laugh, of not finding ways to reinvent himself as a true ambassador of the genre; of even unfortunately becoming a pastiche, a shadow of the man who should always remain cool.
Johnny English Strikes Again has its moments, and when the joke hits home it is with a sense of fine proportion and humbling grace, otherwise to witness such a downfall is to mourn the loss of an institution, long before it is ready to leave the stage; in many ways reminiscent, evocative even, of the final cinematic journeys undertaken by Tony Hancock.
The film is not just a reflection on cinema and television’s failure to give Rowan Atkinson the exposure and parts he so well deserves but also for the fact that it is in many ways a tired and only partially enjoyable experience for the audience; and whilst it is above anything that the same American industry recently has to offer in the same vein, the lack of ingenuity, of love for the film itself is indicative of the spasm, of the void in which we sit, and wait.
It is perhaps to the era we live in that seeing another outing for a character who has begun to wain with the times has become a mirror image for ourselves, we endure the remake because we must, since it reminds us of simpler times, of when we could expect heroes to remain unsullied forever; something to which must end and for the sake of the positive face of comedy, must allow Rowan Atkinson something truly beautiful in which to lend his genius to.
Ian D. Hall