Strikes Again is three too many

★ 1/2 out of ★★★★

Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)

Runtime: 88 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG for some action violence, rude humor, language and brief nudity.

Yet another flat-out embarrassing pratfall. Isn't a character supposed to learn and change a little, given years and years?

It's deterioration of the same formula used in its previous installments. This time, close to absolute silence encompasses the first half an hour of Johnny English Strikes Again. If you're fortunate, you'll only slightly chuckle at the rude and embarrassing pratfalls of English and his sidekick. The first chuckle that is valid enough to be called a 'laugh' is when English ostensibly escapes from a ship, but falls and lands on a lower platform. It's just that the laughs are so infrequent and repetitive, you'll find yourself bored to half-insanity.

Strikes Again starts with a situation, where MI7 is a victim of a cyber-attack, initiated by an unknown. The attack has exposed all its agents' identities. As a result, they have to call Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson), who's long left MI7 and is now working as a geography teacher. English requests for his sidekick, Bough (Ben Miller), and the two travel to the south of France to obtain some clues. They meet a spy, Ophelia Bhuletova (Olga Kurylenko), as they undergo misadventures traveling here to there, retrieving more information. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Emma Thompson), wants to meet a Silicon Valley billionaire, Jason Volta (Jake Lacy), in hopes of forming an agreement.

Unlike its predecessors, the film's gotten more talkative. Even though Strikes Again updates itself with new technology, and even though the background of various settings look vivid, the spoofing goes in no direction, not even critiquing or conveying something about its subject matter.

The laughs are not amusing. Sure, they may be a pinch of genuine laughs that are scattered around, but most of it is repetitive. There is a type of humor where a character makes a statement, but the inverse event happens instead. Strikes Again plays this technique so many times that each laugh is predictable, and in the end, no laughs are elicited. Once again, it also mostly relies on English's pratfalls, which grew tired in Johnny English Reborn (it's also quite a waste of Rowan Atkinson's comedic talent). His character again has little to no depth, and the same applies to the other characters. The film resorts to English dropping his pants for crass laughs, and at least it was successful.

Besides its lazy approach to humor, it under-utilizes its talented cast like Emma Thompson and Olga Kurylenko. Kurylenko, who somehow got the greenlight to go from a Bond girl to a Bond rip-off girl, plays a character that conveniently appears and disappears within the narrative. Emma Thompson gives a sometimes over-the-top performance of the Prime Minister, which is supposed to provide the film with some energy, but alas, it doesn't. 

Speaking of the narrative, the build-up is so fast, as event after event is revealed in a short matter of time, and the villain is quickly revealed, with no conviction until the end of the second act. However, it then drags again and again, from car chases to submarines to castles but, luckily, not delaying to helicopter chase sequences.

Jake Lacy plays Jason Volta, the billionaire who's eventually revealed to the main villain. His purpose is generic, that is, control the world blah blah blah. However, one thing I actually liked was his dialogue that sharply insulted and criticized English's stupidity, which I find amusing. It's strange when you agree with the villain more than the titular protagonist.

Like the title of my review, it's an unnecessary sequel to a mediocre franchise. It's hard to call Johnny English Strikes Again entertainment, when the first laugh is a third of the way in, and the rest is so unimaginative you'll probably leave the theater due to the infrequent laughs. Perhaps audiences would stay in to watch Rowan Atkinson and co. in repeated pratfalls.