Johnny English Strikes Again

In "Johnny English Strikes Again," Rowan Atkinson's fumbly double oh trouble MI7 agent gets up to classic hijinks in the third installation of the Johnny English movie series. Not just another star comedy vehicle with the likes of Emma Thompson and Ben Miller putting in their time, "Strikes Again" also provides commentary on current affairs and the digital revolution (still in progress, to be sure). With far lower stakes as a spoof of James Bond and other British Intelligence films that idolized lone wolves and alpha males, both Atkinson's devil may care facade and his mask of horrified guilt hands audiences two big moods for 2018.

Atkinson's Johnny English is passionate, good with hunches and very terrible at his job. English is unsuave, unhip and delightfully awkward. As the bellwether of chaos, English's failures and pratfalls are always his fault, while his successes are only made possible through the intervention of others, be they fellow spies or spies on the opposite team. The Mr Magoo of spies still manages to have a great sense of duty while being fuzzy on the details. It is clear that this is a Rowan Atkinson piece with visual jokes and pratfalls aplenty.

What is new and very telling is the inclusion of material centered on the way younger folks perceive older folks and vice versa: What has been termed a digital divide or even the difference between colonizing countries like Britain or France versus younger, up and coming countries like South Korea or India. Skills that were once deemed strange are now absolutely necessary and behaviors once commonplace fall out of fashion. Although the old-versus-new debates were hilarious, I laughed hardest when there was a large, improbable explosion. Certainly, it is nice to have both cerebral and physical humor represented in this latest English.