Johnny English Strikes Again is the sequel movie to Johnny English Reborn. Johnny English Strikes Again has everything, it contains fantasy, it was futuristic, and it had humour, which are all things I want to see when I go to the cinema to watch a film. This movie review will contain some spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the film, don’t say you weren’t warned.

It starred Rowan Atkinson as Johnny and co-starred Ben Miller as Bough. Our comical friend Johnny English had retired from MI5 and became a geography teacher which he said to Bough he was ‘scouting’ for future agents. The climax of the film starts when the traffic lights are red all over the UK causing massive traffic jams. Johnny and two former agents are rehired to try and solve the problem and it doesn’t take long for Johnny to do his first humorous mistake, he is given a pen that has the lid explode after 10 seconds being off the pen. Johnny drops the lid in one of the teas, he then leaves the room with the tea with the lid in. Johnny then takes the lid out and drops it back into the room killing his other two agents. English follows it off with a great line to one of the other men saying ‘they um… nodded off,’ meaning fell asleep.

Simon, a technological genius is responsible for the traffic delays, but the Prime Minister doesn’t know Simon is behind the attacks and meets to discuss a deal with him to help save the country, she ignores and fires Johnny who tells her it’s Simon who’s behind the attacks. When Simon gets all leaders of every country in the world to give him access to their technology to make it secure, and when he has it, he reveals he plans to control the world with it. Luckily Johnny, Bough, and Ophelia, who was working for Simon but betrayed him managed to blow up the control ship, which took away his power over technology.

For me, what really made this movie was the humour in it, probably the highlight was when Ophelia pointed a gun at Johnny on the deck of a ship, he held his nose and before he dived off, he said ‘Until next time.’ Expecting to fall in the ocean, he instead fell onto a lower level of the ship, which was the cue to the laughter in the cinema. Another funny moment was when Johnny had jelly babies (for those who don’t know they’re a popular type of sweets in the UK) and Bough said ‘I did love a good Jelly Baby,’ until Johnny stopped him warning him it’s explosive. It’s not funny now but then at the end of the movie it ends with the headmaster taking a Jelly Baby, saying the same line ‘I did love a good Jelly Baby’ before Johnny could stop him and he explodes.

I think the plot of the film is very strong, it’s a new idea, it’s got the old Johnny English feeling, but it has a futuristic feeling with the technology, and the conflict is stopping a cyber attack and I’ve not seen a movie done with that idea before. It has that theme of the older generation neglecting the new technology. For example, when MI5 tells Johnny they don’t have guns anymore and they give him a modern car, he forces them to give him both a gun and an old car. The movie moves at a good pace, it’s action almost throughout. It’s not like those films which have unnecessary scenes.

My only negative point about the film is it was a bit short, I thought the ending was great, but it was premature, and I’d have liked to see what happened to the Prime Minister, what happened to Ophelia like when in the previous film Vortex was defeated Johnny was knighted, and then like the end of this film with the Jelly babies, it ended with him beating up the queen because someone disguised as her referencing an earlier event in the film where he beats someone’s grandma up with someone disguised as her.

In terms of success with other members of the audience, google user’s reviews averaged a 94% of people who enjoyed it, however on IMDb, it received a very average 6.5/10, with the majority of critics saying it was an unnecessary addition to an already great collection. In my opinion, people had their standards too high as it was a sequel to a very successful film. Another criticism was that people felt it was directed at a younger audience. I can see why people would feel upset as you would want it to appeal to all ages, however, you can’t please everyone. At the same time, I can see why people would think it’s more aimed at kids than adults.

I personally really enjoyed the movie, it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in recent years. I think the movie got a lot of criticism it didn’t warrant and I think the success it’s received it’s ultimately deserved. Out of 10, I would personally give the movie 9.5 out of 10, the .5 knocked off because of the ending being a bit premature, other than that, I fully recommend it.