This is actually kind of embarrassing for me to say, being English and all, but the country I live in is best represented by a bumbling buffoon. Mr. Bean, one of my favorite comedy characters also seems to have become my nations representative, and you can have no idea how disturbing that truly is. You may though only be familiar with Mr. Bean from his movie and as such will be very surprised to here me describe him as one of my favorite comedy characters but trust me the series was much funnier than the movie he did, and it's a shame that a film can't be made that is faithful to the Mr. Bean franchise...
Actually There now has been but his name is not Bean, it's English. Johnny English.
Johnny English is the best example of this genre in years, with nothing since The Naked gun being able to even contend with it, and even then I personally found it funnier than The Naked Gun. With a few exceptions I'm not really a fan of The Naked Gun style slap stick comedy and find the more British humour of things like Mr. Bean to be far funnier. That's why Johnny English comes as such a fresh change, because with the exception of a small moment towards the end the writers have avoided going down the bad taste route that so many comedies choose to take and instead just allows you to enjoy the exploits of a bumbling buffoon in the same way that Peter Sellers did back in the days of The Pink Panther. I know a lot of people who dislike this type of humour but there are also a lot of people who love it and these are the people who should check out Johnny English, because it just tries to be a simple and entertaining movie with no attempts to find acceptance among the American Pie generation.
Of course this is not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination. Like you'd expect from any comedy the jokes are very hit and miss, and a lot of them are so obvious that you see them coming in the opening credits. The film's one bad taste joke is a perfect example of this because as soon as the scene starts and you see what he's doing you just know how it's going to end. There are a few examples of this but there are also a lot more hit's than misses and that's not an easy thing for me to say. I went into this film expecting the worst, I really wanted to dislike it as just another dumb movie but I can't. The film is really fresh and really funny, and while a few of the jokes miss the mark I'd say the largest majority hit that mark dead on and the film brings about a return to form for one of Britain funniest comedians.
Saying that though the film is held together by Rowan Atkinson who, like Sellers before him, has a certain style that makes this type of humour funny. Had they cast another established comedian like Jim Carrey, Leslie Neilson or anyone else you care to mention and the film would have fallen flat but Atkinson is perfect for the role. Even at the start when you see English as a suave James Bond style spy, albeit a comedy version, and Atkinson does surprisingly well. Then when the character wakes up the look on his face is that classic Mr. Bean look complete with goofy looking grin. Atkinson has been doing the Mr. Bean role for years and like I said this is the perfect translation of that character. It's thanks to Atkinson's experience that the character of Johnny English has had a successful transition from Barkley card ads to the big screen. I just hope that audiences embrace him in the way that he deserves.
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