Oh, Rowan Atkinson, we love you but you don't half make some right shit. All we really want from you is a Blackadder movie, epic, crude and very, very mean spirited. But all we get from you are more Bean films and Johnny English movies...always years after the last film had come out and way beyond the point where anybody gives a shit about the character to warrant a sequel. But hey ho, Atkinson's Bond spoof persona is back in Johnny English Reborn, sequelising a weak spy parody that had way too few gags to seriously consider itself a "comedy".
This unwanted sequel has, what I'd like to call, The Red Dwarf Factor. Red Dwarf was (and still is actually) a UK produced, space-bound, science fiction sitcom..and pretty darned funny it was too. Unfortunately, it fell into the trap, especially in it's middle seasons, of taking itself too seriously as a sci-fi show, and letting the comedy elements take more of a backseat. That's what happens with Reborn as it so desperately wants to be a Bond movie, complete with chase sequence and fight scene every 5 minutes that the jokes begin to disappear from the narrative. It's well produced, has a great cast (Dominic West, Gillian Anderson, the English rose Rosamund Pike), Bondian locations and strong effects and score. But the comedy is too hit and miss. There's not enough gags to fill the running time and what there is has been mishandled by the director and editor.
Now then Rowan, about that Blackadder movie?
No comments:
Post a Comment