Somewhere out there in the infinite universe, an audience exists for every strange, inexplicable, and apparently unworkable movie you can think of. You wouldn’t watch it but someone out there would, and in numbers. Apparently the producers of the first Johnny English film have updated the Drake equation [see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation] of improbable film ideas to conclude that eight years is a good time for audiences to want to see Rowan Atkinson dust off his Mr Bean routine in a James Bond parody.

And this is what they deliver in Johnny English Reborn. This sequel begins with the reinstatement of the eponymous super spy, who went into exile following a career-ending botched intelligence operation in between the two Johnny English films – hence the ‘reborn’ in the film title. Fear not, genteel audiences! Nothing has changed and this is still a Johnny English film – Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean’s Johnny English still gets himself into slapstick situations, makes silly faces, botches operations, sets off complicated domino falls, and delivers the same Beanean penny wise, pound foolish routine.

If you still find Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean routine funny these days and still can’t get enough of them, this is your film. If you’d rather remember Rowan Atkinson for his savage, sophisticated comedy in his Blackadder series, you’ll continue to be disappointed here. If you’re intent on watching a parody of James Bond films, if you were expecting a James Bond parody to have class and sophisticated wit, conceptually speaking the tad predictable Johnny English series does not deliver, and delivers even less finesse and originality than the Austin Powers series.