Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageJohnny English (2003)
Director: Peter Howitt
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Smooth megalomaniac Pascal Sauvage (Malkovich), a French prison construction magnate, feels so much hatred for Britain that his greatest desire is to be crowned King of England and turning the island into one enormous jail. An elaborate plan is hatched, but Sauvage hasn't bargained for secret service recruit Johnny English (Atkinson) and his sidekick Bough (Miller). An ignorant maladroit klutz, English stumbles through cases like a bull in a china factory, but invariably - and usually by accident - manages to solve them. Inspired by a series of credit card TV ads Atkinson made in the '90s, Howitt's unabashed 007 spoof is intermittently hilarious, but mostly just amusing. The overall template is clearly Bond, down to the car, the gadgets, the tuxedos and the girl, though even the late Cubby Broccoli would have blanched at this film's ridiculous premise. So what? Sit back and enjoy the spectacle of Atkinson doing what he does best: a caricature of the world's most famous spy.Author: DA
Cast & crew
Director: Peter Howitt
Producer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Mark Huffam
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia, Ben Miller, John Malkovich, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kevin McMally, Oliver Ford Davies, Douglas McFerran, Tasha De Vasconcelos, Greg Wise full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 88 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
The essential guide to the London Film Festival
Get the inside track on the all the films and events you'll want to catch at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival
Terence Davies: interview
Wally Hammond talks to visionary British director Terence Davies about his deeply personal and long-awaited new documentary ‘Of Time and the City’
A Bond a day: No. 10 'The Spy Who Loved Me'
Time Out revisits the 21 Bond movies day by day to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
W.
Read our early review of Oliver Stone's George W Bush biopic, 'W.', playing at this year's London Film Festival
Ten friendly ghost movies
To celebrate the release of 'Ghost Town' in which Ricky Gervais plays a New York dentist who can see dead people, Time Out counts down ten great friendly ghost movies.
What do you think?
Post your review now