Johnny English

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Johnny English ★½ 2003 (PG)

Johnny English (Atkinson) is a deskbound member of the espionage community who's promoted to active status due to some unfortunate circumstances that he caused. The klutz must then prevent an evil French businessman (Malkovich) from dethroning the Queen and taking over. Anglophiles, fans of Rowan Atkinson, and toilet/slapstick humor lovers will enjoy this stale crumpet, but there's not much here for anyone else Stateside. Atkinson manages to squeeze some laughs from a poor script with his supreme gift for physical comedy, however, and Malkovich gleefully throws himself over the top. Imbruglia, making her feature debut, is game, but doesn't have much to do. 86m/C VHS, DVD . GB US Rowan Atkinson, John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia, Ben Miller, Kevin McNally, Tim Pigott-Smith, Douglas McFerran, Greg Wise, Oliver Ford Davies; D: Peter Howitt; W: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, William Davies; C: Remi Adefarasin; M: Ed Shearmur.