An older generation may have fond memories of one particular cinematic double-bill in 1980 which teamed James Bond with Inspector Clouseau, The Spy Who Loved Me, and The Pink Panther Strikes Again was a memorable match and the latter certainly welcomed the legendary Peter Sellers character to a Bond-type adventure.
Rowan Atkinson certainly shares his forte with Sellers and returns to the big screen as the bumbling British spy Johnny English, who returns in the third of his continually successful films that mixes Atkinson’s trademark Bean characteristics with the best that 007 has to offer.
English is a retired spy who now teaches Geography at a school, but when a cyber-attack hits London’s techno-infrastructure which exposes the younger agents, English is called back into action and heads off to the South of France, where he encounters beautiful spy Ophelia (former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) who is entwined with dotcom mogul Jason Volta (Jake Lacy) who has designs on helping the PM (Emma Thompson) with making the firewalls of UK Government safe. Inevitably, there is darker deeds afoot…
Parents who find the recent action intensity of the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig Bonds can at least offer this as an alternative to their younger children, which more or less has the elements of the earlier gentler Roger Moore family-friendly films and apes Goldeneye and Skyfall for setting and style.
Admittedly this shares more with the Austin Powers films, with the expected prat-falls and silliness intact. However, there is a nice virtual-reality gag that is well worth the price of entry and the film sells well on the strength of Atkinson, who is at his level best here. Cameos from Charles Dance, Edward Fox, and Michael Gambon add to the charm. If the film does well, it will certainly be no surprise to see a fourth in the works down the line.
JOHNNY ENGLISH STRIKES AGAIN / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: DAVID KERR / SCREENPLAY: WILLIAM DAVIES / STARRING: ROWAN ATKINSON, EMMA THOMPSON, OLGA KURYLENKO / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 5TH
