Johnny English Strikes Again

Johnny English Strikes Again
Theatrical release poster
Directed by David Kerr
Produced by
Screenplay by William Davies
Based on Characters
by Neal Purvis
Robert Wade
William Davies
Starring
Music by Howard Goodall
Cinematography Florian Hoffmeister
Edited by Tony Cranstoun
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • 5 October 2018 (2018-10-05) (United Kingdom)
  • 10 October 2018 (2018-10-10) (France)
  • 26 October 2018 (2018-10-26) (United States)
Running time
 89 minutes[1]
Country
  • France
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Box office $66.1 million[2]

Johnny English Strikes Again is a 2018 action comedy[3] film directed by David Kerr; it is a sequel to the film of 2011 Johnny English Reborn and the third instalment in the Johnny English series. The film is written by William Davies and produced by Rowan Atkinson, who reprises his role as the title character.

The film was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2018, and will be released on 26 October in the United States, by Universal Pictures.

Plot

One night, MI7 receives a cyber attack from an unknown entity which exposes the identities of all their current agents. They are subsequently forced to reinstate their older and inactive agents, including English, currently a geography teacher secretly training his students in espionage. However, he accidentally incapacitates the other summoned retired agents. Thus, he is tasked to complete the mission by himself, but he asks to be accompanied by his old sidekick, Bough. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is considering a meeting with a Silicon Valley billionaire, Jason Volta, to form an agreement that she can bring to a meeting between G12 nations.

English and Bough travel to the south of France and begin their investigations. Both of them receive a clue that the cyber attack came from a yacht, the Dot Calm. Upon infiltrating the yacht, English marks it as a potential target with a concealed transmitter. However, as they are escaping, they meet a Russian woman, Ophelia, who tries to stop them. The next day, English and Bough decide to pursue Ophelia as she leaves the Dot Calm; as they run out of petrol, she approaches them instead and requests to meet them later on.

In London, the Prime Minister meets with Volta where the latter hacks the city's traffic management system and resolves one of the cyber attacks by moving its operation to his own server. While English is meeting with Ophelia, Bough discovers that she could be a spy. English is unconvinced and returns to his room for the night. Ophelia is revealed to be a Russian spy and is quickly ordered by her superior to eliminate English. Fortunately, she fails to execute English after he accidentally consumes a pill that causes him to be hyperactive.

The next morning, as the side effects of the pill still linger, Bough informs English that the yacht belongs to Volta. English and Bough then rush back to MI7 and report it to Pegasus. However, Pegasus is unconvinced and asks for a concrete evidence. Thus, English and Bough decide to infiltrate Volta's British mansion residence. Meanwhile, after further series of cyber attacks, the Prime Minister and Volta solidify an agreement to be revealed during the G12 meeting. In preparation for the infiltration, English is asked to complete a virtual reality simulation in which he explores the billionaire's mansion.

He unknowingly assaults a few civilians in the process, after failing to set his simulation to remain isolated within the room. Afterwards, English proceeds on the infiltration mission, where he meets Ophelia within the mansion. After recording evidence about Volta's true objectives with Ophelia's phone, English is captured when she betrays him. English manages to escape with a driving school car, but accidentally takes the wrong phone and fails to convince Pegasus and the Prime Minister regarding Volta's schemes. The Prime Minister fires English and decides to proceed with the G12 meeting in Scotland.

Bough convinces English to move forward and stop Volta without MI7 support. They enlist the assistance of Bough's wife Lydia, the captain of a Navy submarine. In Scotland, Volta reveals to Ophelia that he has known her true identity since the beginning. Fortunately, English manages to intervene before Volta is able to kill her, but he also fails to capture Volta as Ophelia escapes.

Volta then joins the Prime Minister and the other G12 nations' leaders for the meeting. English tries to stop Volta again but fails. The tech billionaire then reveals his true plan of extorting the G12 nations' leaders for control over their countries' data. After failing the second time, English decides to call Pegasus for help as he forgets about the warning that Bough's wife gave him about using a phone near the submarine.

English's call inadvertently causes the submarine to launch a missile that destroys the Dot Calm, which was previously marked by English and effectively ruining Volta's scheme. Volta tries to escape but English finally manages to incapacitate him. Afterwards, upon completing the mission, English returns to his teaching job. There, he introduces his students with the gadgets that he used during the mission, but the headmaster accidentally uses one of them.

Cast

Additionally, Charles Dance, Michael Gambon and Edward Fox had cameo appearances as Agent Five, Agent Seven and Agent Nine respectively..

Production

In May 2017, it was announced that Rowan Atkinson would be returning to play Johnny English in the sequel to the film Johnny English Reborn (2011).[9] On 3 August 2017, Working Title Films announced that they had begun production and filming with the director David Kerr.[4][10] Parts were also filmed in Welham Green, Hertfordshire; and in Gloucestershire.[11][12]

Filming continued in France from 26 September, at the Saint Aygulf beach in Var.[5] The cinematographer is Florian Hoffmeister, and the production designer is Simon Bowles. On 4 April 2018, the title was revealed to be Johnny English Strikes Again,[13] with a teaser trailer[14] released the day after.[15]

Release

Johnny English Strikes Again was scheduled to be released in both the United Kingdom and United States on 12 October 2018 by Universal Pictures;[9][16] the date for the United States was later moved up to 20 September 2018, before being pushed back to 26 October 2018.[17] It was released on 5 October 2018 by Cinemax - Angola.[18]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 38% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Johnny English Strikes Again might get a few giggles out of viewers pining for buffoonish pratfalls, but for the most part, this sequel simply strikes out."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on four critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[20]

References

  1. ↑ "Johnny English Strikes Again". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  3. ↑ "Johnny English Strikes Again". universalpictures.com. Universal Pictures. September 29, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Perry, Spencer (3 August 2017). "Johnny English 3 Begins Production". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  5. 1 2 Amalric, L. (27 September 2017). "Les photos du premier jour de tournage de Johnny English 3 dans le Var". Nice-Matin (in French). Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  6. ↑ Horton, Kim (13 September 2017). "Filming for comedy blockbuster comes to Gloucestershire".
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Johnny English 3".
  8. ↑ "Official Site Johnny English 3".
  9. 1 2 Richardson, Jay (18 May 2017). "Rowan Atkinson to make Johnny English 3". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  10. ↑ @Working_Title (3 August 2017). "He's back! #JohnnyEnglish3" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  11. ↑ Davies, Alan (4 September 2017). "Johnny English 3 movie being filmed in Welham Green". whtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  12. ↑ Horton, Kim (13 September 2017). "Film crews have descended on a top Gloucestershire location and this is what they're shooting". gloucestershirelive.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  13. ↑ "Prepare for the Johnny English Strikes Again Teaser with a Look Back". ComingSoon.net. 4 April 2018.
  14. ↑ "Brand New Trailer Arrives for Johnny English Strikes Again!". Filmoria.co.uk. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "The Johnny English Strikes Again Trailer!". ComingSoon.net. 5 April 2018.
  16. ↑ @TomLinay (17 May 2017). "For those interested, Johnny English..." (Tweet). Retrieved 4 August 2017 – via Twitter.
  17. ↑ Evry, Max (3 January 2018). "Johnny English 3 Release Date Announced". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  18. ↑ "Cinemax - É um espectáculo - Johny English: Volta Atacar". www.cinemax.co.ao (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  19. ↑ "Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  20. ↑ "Johnny English Strikes Again reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
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