Rowan Atkinson is monumental in Johnny English Strikes Back (review)
This sequel once again demonstrates to what extent the British actor is one of the greatest.
Johnny English strikes back will return tonight on CStar, and First advises you. When it was released in 2018, the editorial team was in awe of the talent of its main performer, Rowan Atkinson. Here is our review.
Johnny English: Rowan Atkinson is not just Mister Bean!
Parodying James Bond is one of the most mundane pies in a comedian's arsenal. And yet, when it's Rowan Atkinson who gets involved in the Johnny English series (whose third opus Johnny English strikes back hits theaters October 10), why does it work? Because it's Rowan Atkinson, obviously. And this is another recurring cliché of the profession of cinema journalist to recall – and to insist on – the fact that the actor is not only Mr. Bean. So let's remember that Johnny English does not only express the mimesque verve (admittedly brilliant) of the character of the great, confused and mute naive who made him famous worldwide.
OK, Johnny English strikes back is set in the world of action espionage popularized for more than half a century by the 007 franchise, but Atkinson gives it all his personality: we are far from being a Mr. Bean smoking-gadgets-martini version. It is even the quintessence, the culmination of all of Atkinson's talent. A mix between physical comedy (Mr Bean, therefore) and verbal comedy, like in the series The Black Viper, his indisputable masterpiece where everything depended on the punchline to demolish the great figures of stupidity of our time. Seizing James Bond, the purest symbol of the British cliché if one had to be found, is for Atkinson the opportunity to assert that he is both a monument and the desire to destroy this monument. A monument to stupidity, therefore.
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