Johnny English

Plot synopsis:
Johnny English is an inept MI7 agent with dreams of being their most trusted employee. After Agent One dies in a submarine accident (courtesy of English making a mistake on checking the submarine hatch code), the remaining agents are assassinated via a bombing at Agent One’s funeral (again courtesy of English's incompetence at security), leaving English as the lone surviving agent. English is assigned to follow a plot to steal the Crown Jewels, which are on display at the Tower of London.
At the display, English is head of security, and meets the mysterious Lorna Campbell. The power is cut, and the jewels are stolen. During the chaos, English knocks out Col Sir Anthony Chevenix, Head of Royal Security in the process and pretends to fight the assailant (in reality fighting himself).
He later makes up a false description of the assailant to MI7 head Pegasus. English and his assistant Angus Bough find the jewels were removed via a hole dug beneath their display case. The two follow a tunnel, confronting the two thieves Dieter Klein and Klaus Vendetta. The two escape in a hearse, with English trying to pursue them, but he mistakes another hearse for the escaped vehicle, gatecrashing a funeral until Bough comes to his aid by pretending he is from the Lunatic Response Unit and that English is a patient named Gunther who wasn't supposed to be released until 2028 but was accidentally released due to "a most monumental cock-up".
English connects the thieves to Pascal Sauvage, a French prison entrepreneur who helped restore the Crown Jewels. Pegasus finds the claims of his involvement absurd and warns English not to involve Sauvage. In the car park, English and Bough are attacked by Vendetta, but are unharmed beyond Bough getting a nose bleed (courtesy of English mistaking him for Vendetta and covering up for himself by saying that there could have been other thieves and adamantly insisting that Bough drop the issue and move on).
English again encounters Lorna Campbell in a sushi restaurant as he recognized her motorcycle. During their meeting English is suspicious of her since he has seen her at two of their crime scenes and her records cannot be found on any government computer. English and Bough decide to break into Sauvage’s headquarters via parachutes, but English lands on the other twin tower containing the City Hospital by mistake taking hospital employees hostage until he sees the "SAUVAGE" sign from the building with Bough inside.
He then covers for himself by telling the employees that the holdup was just a test of their emergency response systems while telling Bough that he merely did a precautionary sweep of the immediate environment. Going to the correct building, the two learn Sauvage, who is a descendant of Bonnie Prince Charlie, plans on making himself king, using an impostor to impersonate the Archbishop of Canterbury. Lorna arrives, revealed to be an Interpol agent tracking Sauvage. With evidence of Sauvage’s involvement, English crashes a reception hosted by Sauvage but he is suspended from work by Pegasus for breaking into Sauvage's office, assaulting his staff and insulting the foreign secretary.
With English knowing their plans, Sauvage scraps the fake Archbishop and instead sends his minions to force Queen Elizabeth II to abdicate by threatening her corgis, causing the entire line of succession to be swept clean for Sauvage to become king. Lorna, now in charge of the assignment by Pegasus, visits the depressed English and convinces him to travel with her to Sauvage’s French Château to investigate.
Eavesdropping on Sauvage’s meeting with renowned criminals, English and Lorna learn Sauvage plans to turn the United Kingdom into the world’s biggest prison when he becomes king. English and Lorna are exposed when the former accidentally activates a microphone, and they are taken prisoners. English tries to steal the DVD of Sauvage’s plan, but accidentally drops it onto a tray of identical discs and takes the wrong one without looking. Bough rescues the two and they race to stop Sauvage’s coronation.
English crashes the coronation and discovers the Archbishop is the genuine article. Undeterred, English orders Bough to play the DVD, only to find it is camera footage of himself dancing in his bathroom in his underclothes to “Does Your Mother Know” by ABBA, Sauvage having bugged English’s flat beforehand, much to Pegasus' disgust. English sneaks away but swings in on a wire to steal St. Edward’s Crown from Sauvage. Sauvage angrily shoots at English with a pistol, causing him to drop the crown. Moments before Sauvage is crowned king, English drops from the wire after being shot, lands on the throne, and is crowned instead. In his singular act as king, English has Sauvage arrested and restores the Queen to the throne, requesting a knighthood as a reward.
In the final scene, English and Lorna drive to southern France for a romantic holiday, only for English to accidentally launch Lorna out of the car by pressing the ejection seat button. Lorna lands in a hotel swimming pool, where Bough happens to be vacationing as well as a man identical to the assailant that English described to Pegasus earlier in the film.

Tags: violence, comedy, humor, comic

Review:
Johnny's only help is from his loyal partner (Ben Miller) and a beautiful, mysterious spy woman (Natalie Imbruglia) could help bring Sauvage to Justice.Directed by Peter Howitt (Anti-Trust, Laws of Attraction, Sliding Doors) made a entertaining comedy that spoofs the films of James Bond and The Naked Gun Trilogy.
Johnny English, with the support of his assistant Bough (Ben Miller) and Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia), fights against the evil Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovitch), a powerful French who wants to be the king of the United Kingdom and transforms England in a great prison for all criminals of the world.
The singer Natalie Imbruglia is very beautiful, the unknown Ben Miller is the efficient assistant of Johnny English, and John Malkovitch, with a ridiculous French accent, complete the funny cast of this comedy.
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.
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....
The answer surprisingly is quite well,although the film does have flat spots and gags that somewhat misfire.The plot and incidents that take place are an obvious mixture and borrowing from the NAKED GUN and AUSTIN POWERS series of parodies,but what is refreshing is that the character of Johnny English is mostly free of the occasional mugging that was witnessed in the above films,and also Atkinson's MR BEAN creation,which was of course wordless but did sometimes engage in some rather messy slapstick.There is some messy slapstick here,but Atkinson's interpretation is closer to his greatest comic character of Edmund BLACKADDER,with his sometimes cynical and sarcastic tone,though he has traits of bumbling incompetence like Mr.Bean,though not total idiocy which makes English more sympathetic.A lower budget than the AUSTIN POWERS series means there are fewer elaborate set pieces,but some scenes work very well and there are some witty exchanges of dialogue.There's decent support from Natalie Imbruglia,Ben Miller and Tim Pigott-Smith,but John Malkovich is the most amusing as the villain with his cod French accent.It is encouraging to see a comedy which underplays it's scenes these days,rather than performers shouting and screaming in a desperate bid to force laughter out of an audience.That said,some scenes in the film don't always come off,perhaps because they are understated too much,but the best bits are very funny(especially the final scenes)and further sequels with this character would be most welcome..
I was amused many places, but the plotlines were so predictable you could tell all the things meant to be funny was about to happen, way before the climax of the amusement took place...sad, very sad....Johnny English is a strange character - he has his moments where he seems a little intelligent and he has a big talent for coming up with excuses, but apart from that, he is immensely stupid - stupid to a point where the fun stops.
This is one of those movies peppered with those occasional gut-busting scenes that we have come to expect with a comic actor on the order of Atkinson, but is substantially more full of a lot of disposable humor in the form of English's bumbling; for example, going to the wrong building, going up the "poop shoot," Sauvage's coronation (which is probably the best/worst example of this) etc.
The bumbling James Bond-ish character is a one-noter--Atkinson would be funnier in funny SITUATIONS (I daresay mini-"Bean"-type scenes peppered throughout the movie) that are not strained to reveal merely how bumbling and stupid he can be (yes, by 15 minutes into the movie we GET how bumbling English is - don't spend the entire movie explaining it to us again and again).
This James Bond spoof, headed by British comedian Rowan Atkinson, was okay....a fair amount of laughs but not enough to add this film to my collection.
Amusing moments along with embarrassing in this first entry about secret agent Johnny English with a likable Rowan Atkinson , role of the accidental spy who doesn't know fear or danger in this comedy spy-thriller .
Just remember not to take it too seriously and I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.Atkinson plays MI7 agent Johnny English, a bumbling spy in the Inspector Clouseau mould who dreams of being just like James Bond.
English suspects that "greedy Frenchman" Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich) is behind the theft and working alongside his trusty sidekick Bough (Ben Miller) and beautiful Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia), English battles his superiors and his incompetence in order to bring Sauvage's schemes to a halt.It isn't exactly difficult to spoof a spy film - even "Die Another Day" had a good chuckle at itself - but Atkinson's rubber-faced idiot takes things into straight-up slapstick and it works.
It's a funny, silly film that is a great time-passer but not exactly one that stays with you.While it isn't exactly difficult, "Johnny English" is a much funnier film than Atkinson's previous outing "Bean".
Trust me, it's far funnier than the forth-coming "Capital One movie" in production...**Not actually in production, thank God. Not The Worst Brit Comedy You Will See. The critics were unkind to this and I got the impression it was down to two reasons:1 ) The character Johnny English is based on a character that appeared on credit card adverts in the early 1990s .
" " They took some of my blood "" The b@stards " Of course you can see the pay off long before it appears but that still doesn't stop it from being amusing when it doesNo doubt a lot of pretentious John Malkovich fans were left stratching their heads wondering why he was slumming it in JOHNNY English but if you've enjoyed anything Rowan Atkinson has been in you'll certainly find this comedy very watchable.
After Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is put in charge of security at a gathering for all the British secret agents, things go badly wrong and he is suddenly the last of his profession left alive.
The prime suspects are the French entrepreneur (John Malkovich) and the beautiful Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia), he must find the guilty party and save the nation's pride.Rowan Atkinson is simply funny by design, it doesn't seem to matter what role he has to play, or what script he has to deliver; he just always entertains.
Malkovich clearly enjoyed his role as the evil villain, and delivered a typically great portrayal; albeit as a very shallow character, and finally Natalie Imbruglia does a great job of looking sexy throughout.Full of sustained and silly humour, this spy spoof is pretty good entertainment, and should satisfy most Rowan Atkinson fans adequately.7/10.
Despite his sheer incompetence, English manages to uncover Sauvage's plot to succeed the Queen and take control of England.I don't think I really need to explain why I didn't bother to see this at the cinema - the level of humour didn't appeal to me at the time and it simply didn't look like it would be much good.
The script tries hard, but it's basic humour is not clever enough to be an effective Bond spoof; the concept is funny but it overdoes the `incompetent' thing way too far and damages the humour it could have had.Atkinson may not be playing to the same crowds as he once did with Blackadder but he is still good enough for this material.
When the Crown Jewels are stolen, English suspects French tycoon Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich) who has cooked up a dastardly plan to become King of Great Britain.Atkinson showed in the Blackadder series that he could do cynical cunning comedy really well.
It deserves a good 6.5/10.If you like Rowan Atkinson in other movies so don't miss "Mr. Bean's Holiday".
Rowan Atkinson does about as good of a spy he can do in "Johnny English," and while the film provides enough laughs, some of the story and jokes just fall flat.
This is probably a pretty good movie for kids who like comedy and spy films as it is pretty tame (except for the painfully unfunny "crawling up through the toilets" scene).Overall it is ok, nothing great but not too bad.5 out of 10..
I was pleasantly surprised by this spoof of James Bond films, starring the ever-hilarious Rowan Atkinson as the title character.
I am a bit biased, being an Atkinson fan--which seems to be an acquired taste, if you ask some folks--but "Johnny English" turned out to be a much better film than I expected it to be.
The first scene in which we hear his character, Sauvage, speak at length plays out rather poorly and takes a good deal of the steam out of the film's sails.This movie has its moments, but I think its appeal will be mainly to Rowan Atkinson fans like myself.
If you like the good Pink Panther films (A Shot in the Dark, The Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again and Revenge of the Pink Panther), Rowan Atkinson makes a good new addition.With the character Johnny English, Britain has their Inspector Clouseau (Bond spoof).
It's no Austin Powers, but Johnny English does its business (no pun intended) as yet another spoof of the spy genre and making us laugh.Rowan Atkinson, who you may remember as the voice of Zazu in The Lion King or the narcoleptic from Rat Race, makes this work.
This really isn't Atkinson's fault, but more that of the filmmakers, none of whom have ever made a comedy before.As is the case with `secret agent' movies, the overall framework of `Johnny English' follows the traditional spy-thriller formula.
Well, anyway, the film's framework mirrors the 007 spy-thriller, including the plot, the gadgets and the female counterparts; this isn't surprising, since the screenwriters are Robert Wade and Neal Purvis, co-writers for the last two Bond films, `Die Another Day' and `The World is not Enough.' The star of the film being Rowan Atkinson, you'd think that there would be more `Mr. Bean' style comedy, since this was his signature caricature for which most people know him.
In one scene involving his mixing up two drugs, a truth serum and a muscle relaxant, I was in tears laughing for a good five minutes, even though the entire skit was predictable and not very creative.While Atkinson's work was well done, `Johnny English' doesn't really overcome its downsides: the comedy feels inconsistent, the plot line is sloppy, and the supporting characters don't compliment Atkinson's style of humor.
Rowan Atkinson is just a very talented comedian, and you can sometimes in Johnny English see a little from Mr. Bean and his character come back, but that gives the movie a little extra.
Now it's the turn of rubbery-faced English comedian Rowan Atkinson to take on the role of bumbling secret agent Johnny English in this far superior spoof of the Bond movies, directed by Peter Howitt.
Some reasonable action set pieces, a lot of laughs, definitely worth an hour and a half of your time.In difference to some of the other reviews - Johnny has had the requisite spy training, and isnt completely clueless(seeing as from the start he knows who the villain is) - merely very clumsy and incompetent.Perhaps I went in the right mood to see the movie, but the line about whistling in the right pitch still cracks me up, even when it's obvious what's going to happen.Not worth buying on DVD, but definitely worth a cinema or rental view.Probably wont go down too well in France!Just scrapes a 7/10, I feel..
However, if you like Rowan Atkinson or if you are a fan of the Mr Bean character, you will have a good laugh..
You can see lots of the jokes coming, but that doesn't really stop them being funny.I prefer Rowan Atkinson in his "Blackadder" guise (series three and four though for those in the know), but I presume he makes more money this way.
I guess that many people are going to compare it to the much franchised "Austin Powers", I mean true this movie didn't produce as many laughs in comparison to the latter but I believe it made it's own little niche in the comedy-spy movies.I love John Malkovich as any kind of villain, his passive attitude to Johnny making a fool of himself was funny.
Ben Miller was great as Bough, the smart side kick of Johnny.I suggest that if you like Rowan Atkinson's comedy then watch this.
Forever remembered for his role as Mr. Bean, he does excellently to play Johnny English, as a bumbling spy who contradicts himself, collapses the simplest of plans and makes a complete idiot of himself - all in a good cause.
Rowan Atkinson is a great comedy character actor in films such as BEAN, Rat Race, Four Weddings etc and this is no different.
As one comment has just said, this is 90 minutes of harmless fun.Harmless it is, well made it is, but something which i have taken away after seeing this is how funny it is.Mr Bean was a really good character who now seems to have been used too much, although the film did have some hilarious moments, as does this.The premise was ok, a good character from some very funny old commercials for Barclaycard and the film extends those adverts into a film.The end product was actually better than i had expected.Ok some of the gags were signposted well in advance but each one was wonderfully done and then there were scenes of comedic genius such as the car chase and the funeral.The writers of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and DIE ANOTHER DAY were behind this one and that was comforting to know because in the last bond film the plot was good but sometimes TOO spectacular and too little thinking time.
This spy movie spoof is actually quite funny, Atkinson and Malkovich give some great perfomances.
Johnny EnglishIt's unavoidable that people will try to judge this film by making comparisons to Atkinson's other characters and all the James Bond spoofs out there.
Excellent funny movie.Maybe not the best comedy of the world but it makes me laugh and it's a good start!
If you are a fan of Rowan Atkinson's brand of slapstick humor, then just perhaps Johnny English is the film for you.
Even if you've liked his performances in such films as BEAN, you'll probably need to see Johnny English only on a day when your silliness quotient is through the roof.
We've all seen bumbling secret agents before, but none quite like Johnny English who, again thanks to Rowan Atkinson, is a completely original character.
If you do not like Rowan Atkinson's comedy in general then you probably won't enjoy this film, but fans of Atkinson's various TV series like "Blackadder" and "Mr Bean" are certain to roll about laughing.
Very funny and very very good performance of Rowan Atkinson 😂😂😂 I like this movie very much.
Other interpretations that have to be mentioned were Ben Miller's who played as Bough (English's Sidekick) and John Malkovich's who played as Pascal Sauvage the Greedy Frenchman.Finally, I have to say that "Johnny English" is a nice movie to watch, with an interesting plot and many funny scenes that I am sure that they will make you laugh a lot.
Rowan Atkinson is the perfect role for the silly, Mr.Bean-like spy in this Bond parody film.A movie with silly but hilarious and reckless mistakes made by English, like his character in the legendary show Mr.Bean, fake French accents, Aston Martin, and action scenes suitable for a wider audience.Johnny English is a very funny main protagonist who is a spy and tries hard to be serious and is very full of himself, but makes clumsy mistakes that end up embarrassing himself or others, even accidentally harming them!The movie does have some kind of a cult following but I still think the movie does need some more appreciation.
Rowan Atkinson delivers big time, giving Johnny English the perfect mix of slapstick Mr Bean and even some James Bond elements.
CHARACTERS are the main thing to tell, So, Let me show you!🚶🏼LETS GO!Rowan Atkinson as Johnny English - A stupid spy, Who is hitting and punching the wrong person and coming to wrong buildings as well, Also, He has a different friend.Tim Pigott Smith as Pegasus - Wait a minute, Pegasus is a women in the second movie?
"Johnny English" (essentially "Mr. Bean Becomes a Secret Agent") is everything that you would expect from a Rowan Atkinson spy film.
Atkinson, as you would expect, does a great job portraying the bumbling English, and there are several very funny scenes, leading up to English taking on Sauvage at the latter's coronation.The basic success of this movie is measured by the fact that it did indeed make me laugh out loud on a number of occasions.
Although it isn't original it is a very funny film, and I thought that Rowan Atkinson was great as Johnny English.
Rowan Atkinson stars in Johnny English as a British secret agent whose job it is to bring back the stolen Crown jewels.
I can't think of anyone better for this role.Johnny English is the kind of a film that makes you feel great.
It is much better that the Mr. Bean film and I hope Rowan Atkinson will make other movies in the future as well.
I only sat down to write this user comment so I could come up with word-plays on 007/Mr Bean.I've always enjoyed Rowan Atkinson and I'm a huge Bond-fan so "Johnny English" should be right up my alley, and the movie certainly looks great but the jokes...
This movie stars Rowan Atkinson as Johnny English, and he plays a role something of the sort of a James Bond, a bumbling James Bond (think Lt. Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun series).