Zany spy is perfect anti-Bond

By Sheila Norman-Culp
Associated Press

•	'Johnny English' PG, for comic nudity, crude humor and rough language 87 minutes

Rowan Atkinson, the British comedian with a face as elastic as Jim Carrey's and a nose as prominent as Cyrano de Bergerac's, is known to most Americans as the man-child star of 1997's "Bean." Atkinson is no James Bond — and that's just the point in the madcap spy comedy "Johnny English."

Think "Dumb and Dumber" for the international spy set.

The movie is silly, silly, silly — and proud of it. There's a good chance you will be giggling helplessly at some point in "Johnny English," and 7- to 14-year-olds will be giddy throughout.

But the very predictability of Atkinson's character, a 007 wannabe with a touch of lead who screws up every assignment, is both the movie's strength and its downfall.

Atkinson's comedic style — a long, slow setup to the inevitable punch line — lets the audience see what's going to happen a mile away. That can make 87 minutes seem a whole lot longer than it should be.

On the other hand, in small doses the character of Johnny English is sidesplitting. Mowing down innocent secretaries while playing with a pen gun, chasing the bad guys with a car attached to a tow truck, getting his tie stuck in a rotating sushi bar, Atkinson is the perfect hyperkinetic anti-Bond.

"He might be a fool, but he's a fool who keeps showing up," muses John Malkovich, who spoofs his own super-intellectual persona by playing "ze zany Franch villain" — evil magnate Pascal Sauvage — with an accent so thick (zzzick) you will zzzink he is the funniest zzzing on the planet.

"Johnny English" already is a box-office success overseas. It has earned more than $100 million in its first 40 days. The movie is based on a series of popular commercials that Atkinson did for a credit card company.

Oh, the plot! How could we forget? Although this is not a movie in which plot forms any key element.

An unfortunate accident wipes out the British Secret Service, leaving office maven Johnny English as the only man still standing. Needless to say, the Crown Jewels are gone within minutes.

In the climactic scene, an unfortunate mixup in computer disks leaves Johnny English singing ABBA songs in his underwear in front of, say, all of Britain.

Tom Cruise, you have competition.