Johnny English Strikes Again

I felt so blessed when I heard about his movie. I was so excited to go check out a fun light-hearted movie that would me laugh until I cried, and I had already yelled about it to every single one of my movie buddies. I was so ready. Maybe I hyped myself out, but this movie didn’t live up to my expectations. Of course I laughed. I laughed a lot. But almost every single good joke is already in the trailer?? There was one solid joke that I didn’t already know.

Obviously, the plot wasn’t the highlight of the movie. But it sure felt like it was trying to be. With a hack on the British government, a random Silicon Valley billionaire who looks suspiciously like Lex Luthor, and some out of place commentary about the weaknesses of technology (?) this movie went seriously off track. The overarching plot isn’t complicated, but it’s the little steps in between that bordered on downright random. There are haphazard scenes in the movie that are thrown for no reason other than to make the audience laugh. As in, they have no impact on the plot whatsoever, and are just … there. And it’s not a problem; just know that the plot is hardly the movie’s primary concern.

This movie relied on its humor, and it was lacking. It was funny, for sure. But it wasn’t as funny as it should have been. There were long stretches of time where nothing funny happened, and the audience was left alone with the nonsensical plot. That’s where things got a little uncomfortable. For a comedy movie, it needed a little bit more.

The characters were nothing to remember, and were mainly just caricatures. Still, they elicited all the right responses from the audience, and we were all laughing out loud in the theater. It was a good watch overall, but not as great as my memories of the first two Johnny English movies.