--- title: "Johnny English Reborn" year: 2011 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/johnny-english-reborn" fi1m_id: "johnny-english-reborn" imdb_id: "tt1634122" tmdb_id: 58233 wikidata_id: "Q967478" fi1m_score: 53 critics_score: 50 critics_reviews: 16 published: "2026-10-05T12:23:51.421674+00:00" updated: "2026-10-05T12:23:52.221209+00:00" region: "FR" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Johnny English Reborn (2011) Directed by Oliver Parker · 1h 41m · CNC U · Crime, Action, Comedy ## Identity Johnny English Reborn - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/johnny-english-reborn - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** johnny-english-reborn - **IMDb ID:** tt1634122 - **TMDB ID:** 58233 - **Wikidata ID:** Q967478 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1634122/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/58233, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q967478 **Fi1m score: 53** · Critics 50 from 16 reviews *In a sentence:* Atkinson’s face is funnier than anything the script gives it to do > Rowan Atkinson is as exact as he has ever been, and two scenes, a chair and a rooftop, earn their place. The film around him is slow, mild and uninterested in its own cast, and settles for being a vehicle. ## Synopsis Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) has been hiding in a Tibetan monastery, learning to take a kick to the groin without flinching, since a mission in Mozambique went badly. MI7, now run by Pamela (Gillian Anderson) and carrying a corporate sponsor’s name on its wall, calls him back: a former CIA man, Fisher (Richard Schiff), will talk to nobody else. English is given a junior agent, Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya), and sent to Hong Kong, where Fisher tells him of a group called Vortex and a threat to the Chinese premier at forthcoming talks. Back in London he meets the department’s behavioural psychologist, Kate (Rosamund Pike), and its star agent, Ambrose (Dominic West), who is everything English is not. Quartermain (Tim McInnerny) supplies the gadgets. ## Review Eight years after the first [*Johnny English*](https://film.one/film/johnny-english), Rowan Atkinson puts the suit back on, and the question for anyone considering the sequel is whether that is enough. Oliver Parker directs from a screenplay by Hamish McColl, with William Davies also credited as writer, and the plan is plain: a Bond picture for children, with Atkinson’s body doing the work the gadgets usually do. The plan is sound. Atkinson is as precise as he has ever been. The film around him is mild, slow in the middle and short of ideas, and it seems content with that. The best scene is also the cheapest. English is summoned to see Pamela (Gillian Anderson), the head of MI7, and sits in a chair whose height he cannot control. He sinks, he rises, he tries to look like a man receiving a briefing. There are no effects and no stunt, only a lever, Atkinson’s face and his refusal to admit that anything is happening. We laughed out loud, more than once, and felt a little foolish about it afterwards, because we knew exactly what was being done to us and it worked anyway. The rooftop chase in Hong Kong is the other reason to be here. The man English is after goes over walls and across gaps, and English, having looked at the drop, takes the stairs and the lift and arrives ahead of him with his breath intact. Guy Bensley cuts between the two so that the joke lands on the cut, and Ilan Eshkeri’s score gives the runner the full brass and gives English nothing at all. It is a good gag because it is about character: this is a man who is wrong about most things and right about saving his breath. Between those scenes the film sits down. McColl’s script moves English from Tibet to London to Hong Kong and onward by caption, and the plot, about a group called Vortex and a threat to the Chinese premier, is a line of places with a gag waiting at each one. The middle forty minutes are the problem. We were bored, and then irritated about it, because the cast on hand is far better than what they are asked to do. Rosamund Pike plays Kate, a behavioural psychologist who warms to English for reasons the script never finds time to supply. Dominic West’s Ambrose is smooth and smug and nothing more. Anderson gets the driest lines and delivers them as if she knows the consensus, and Daniel Kaluuya, as the junior agent Tucker, is quick and likeable and has one good scene for every three he spends standing at the back. The craft is clean to the point of blandness. Danny Cohen lights everything evenly and brightly, so that Hong Kong looks like a brochure and MI7 looks like an advert, which is, after all, where this character began. Jim Clay’s production design gives the service a glass headquarters with a sponsor’s name on the wall, a joke made in the first reel that then simply becomes the office. Eshkeri’s Bond pastiche is well done and does not pretend to be anything else. The PG certificate keeps the film away from anything rude, and the gags that remain are the kind a parent will have seen before and a child will not, which is the audience Parker has settled on. Against Atkinson’s own standard it sits in the middle. The 2003 film was broader and funnier, and the Mr Bean pictures trusted his face to carry whole scenes without a line. Here Parker gives him the face and then keeps cutting away to a plot. Most critics landed on the fence and so have we, with the same reservation: the things that work all belong to one man, and the film never builds anything around him that works on its own. It runs 101 minutes and earns perhaps a third of them. For a Sunday afternoon with children who have not yet met Rowan Atkinson, that is a fair exchange, and they will remember the chair. For anyone else, keep the remote close, because the good bits do not announce themselves and the rest is quite happy to be skipped. *Fi1m score 53, published 5 October 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews lean mixed to negative, and the one thing nearly every critic agrees on is Rowan Atkinson. His timing, his face and his physical comedy are praised even in notices that dislike the film around him, and several reviews name the same moments: a rooftop chase, a wheelchair chase, a gag built on a chair that will not sit at the right height. More than one critic says the simpler the gag, the better it lands. They part over whether Atkinson is enough. The negative reviews, which outnumber the positive, find the script lazy and the invention thin, and The Guardian argues the slapstick fails to use Atkinson’s talent properly. The spread is wide: Eye for Film finds the film smarter and more fun than expected, while Digital Spy finds it stale and deeply unfunny. Slant, alone, saves its warmth for Gillian Anderson. ## Straight answers **Is Johnny English Reborn worth watching?** *Johnny English Reborn* is worth watching only for children who have not yet met Rowan Atkinson, and we scored it 53. Atkinson is as precise as he has ever been, and a scene with a sinking office chair and a Hong Kong rooftop chase earn their place. The forty minutes in the middle are slow, and a good cast is given little to do. **How long is Johnny English Reborn, and what is it rated?** *Johnny English Reborn* runs 1h 41m and is rated U by the CNC in France. It is a crime and action film. **Where can I watch Johnny English Reborn in France?** *Johnny English Reborn* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from €3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Johnny English Reborn, and is it suitable for children?** *Johnny English Reborn* is a PG spy comedy with nothing in it to frighten or upset a child. The violence is slapstick, the chases are played for laughs, and the certificate keeps the film away from anything rude. Parents will have seen most of the gags before; children will not, and that is the audience the film has settled on. **How does Johnny English Reborn compare to Johnny English?** *Johnny English Reborn* is the milder and slower of the two films, and the first [*Johnny English*](https://film.one/film/johnny-english) is the funnier. The 2003 outing is broader and sillier and gives Atkinson more room, where the sequel keeps cutting away from his face to a plot told by caption. Both have thin writing to forgive, but the earlier film forgives it more easily. **What should I watch after Johnny English Reborn?** After *Johnny English Reborn*, try [*Johnny English*](https://film.one/film/johnny-english) (2003, Fi1m 60): The first outing, broader and sillier, with Atkinson given more room and fewer captions. Then [*OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies*](https://film.one/film/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies) (2006, Fi1m 76): France’s idiot agent, played dead straight by Jean Dujardin; sharper about the genre’s vanity; and [*Top Secret!*](https://film.one/film/top-secret) (1984, Fi1m 76): Zucker and Abrahams fire gags at the spy picture faster than you can count them. ### Reviews we read (16) - **Los Angeles Times**, Robert Abele (70/100, inferred): Abele finds the film a routine but enjoyable vehicle for Rowan Atkinson’s comic talents. He singles out Atkinson’s precise physical comedy and subtle expressions as the source of its best laughs. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-oct-21-la-et-johnny-english-reborn-20111021-story.html) - **Variety**, Russell Edwards (70/100, inferred): Edwards finds the reprise enjoyable, though its laughs are uneven and the comedy often feels wheezy. He praises Atkinson’s physical performance and says the simpler visual gags work best. [Read](https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/johnny-english-reborn-1117946137/) - **Screen Daily**, Mark Adams, chief film critic (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as Mark Adams’s review, but its verdict is unavailable in the accessible text. No specific praise or complaint can be confirmed. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/-johnny-english-reborn/5032475.article) - **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (64/100, inferred): The review text is inaccessible, so its verdict and specific praise or criticism cannot be verified. The available page does not provide enough information to summarize the critic’s assessment. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/movies/johnny-english-reborn-stars-rowan-atkinson-review.html) - **The AV Club**, Nathan Rabin (C+): Rabin finds the sequel hopelessly mild, with only occasional laughs amid weak physical-comedy setpieces. He singles out a chase gag built around Johnny English’s unexpected common sense as the film’s sharpest moment. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/johnny-english-reborn-1798170120) - **Empire**, Ian Freer (60/100, inferred): Freer finds the film low on ambition but capable of delivering strong laughs. He praises Atkinson’s physical and verbal comedy, while noting the story’s thinness. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/johnny-english-reborn-review/) - **Radio Times**, Terry Staunton (3/5): The review finds the sequel lively and Atkinson great value as the incompetent spy. It praises his performance but says some stunts and set pieces suit Mr Bean’s slapstick better. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-fmzl01/johnny-english-reborn/) - **Time Out**, Trevor Johnston (2/5): The critic finds the sequel ho-hum and its central character less funny than in a credit-card commercial. The review’s description singles out the film’s weak central character as a complaint. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/johnny-english-reborn) - **Total Film**, Neil Smith (2/5): Smith finds the sequel unfunny, stale and painful to watch. He especially faults the lethargic script and its lack of invention. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/johnny-english-reborn-review/) - **Slant Magazine**, Rob Humanick (1.5/4): The critic finds the sequel contrived, inert, and barely funny. He singles out Gillian Anderson’s spirited performance as the cast’s most enjoyable contribution. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/johnny-english-reborn/) - **Evening Standard**, The Standard (35/100, inferred): The critic finds the sequel smoother-looking than its predecessor but still not funny enough, and says it limps when Atkinson is not at full stretch. The strongest moments come when Atkinson’s physical comedy recalls Mr Bean. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/johnny-english-reborn-review-7426992.html) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (35/100, inferred): Bradshaw finds the sequel weaker than it should be, despite some good gags and a strong final sequence. He criticizes its undeveloped ideas and says the slapstick fails to make the most of Rowan Atkinson’s talent. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/06/johnny-english-reborn-film-review) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Megan Lehmann (20/100, inferred): The critic finds the sequel a lazy, redundant spy farce with too few laughs. She praises Atkinson’s physical comedy and singles out a rooftop chase as a standout set piece. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/johnny-english-reborn-film-review-236840/) - **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (75/100, inferred): Kermode finds the film much more fun than expected: smart, endearing and distinctly British, despite some cheap laughs and ideas that do not quite work. She praises its well-paced blend of action and slapstick, especially the wheelchair chase. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/johnny-english-reborn-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) - **Den of Geek**, Simon Brew (2 out of 5): The review finds the film largely unfunny and a slog. It praises Rowan Atkinson’s comic skill, noting that his timing and performance give the weak material some life. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/johnny-english-reborn-review/) - **Digital Spy**, Ben Rawson-Jones (10/100, inferred): The critic strongly pans the film as a stale, deeply unfunny comedy that squanders its cast. They single out Atkinson’s chair-height mishap as the one standout gag, while criticizing the direction and pacing elsewhere. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a342839/johnny-english-reborn-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Oliver Parker - **Director:** Oliver Parker - **Screenplay:** Hamish McColl - **Writer:** William Davies - **Cinematography:** Danny Cohen - **Editor:** Guy Bensley - **Music:** Ilan Eshkeri - **Production design:** Jim Clay - **Producer:** Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Chris Clark - **Cast:** Rowan Atkinson as Johnny English; Gillian Anderson as Pamela; Dominic West as Ambrose; Rosamund Pike as Kate; Daniel Kaluuya as Tucker; Tim McInnerny as Quartermain; Richard Schiff as Fisher; Burn Gorman as Slater - **Runtime:** 1h 41m - **Certificate (CNC):** U - **Release (France):** 19 October 2011 - **Genres:** Crime, Action, Comedy - **Budget:** $45 million - **Box office:** $160 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCsSzZU-sQ4 ## Where to watch in France - Amazon Prime Video: rent €3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent €3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy €9.99, hd - Apple TV: buy €9.99, hd *Checked 2026-10-05.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, SE, SG, TH, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Johnny English* (2003), Fi1m 60: The first outing, broader and sillier, with Atkinson given more room and fewer captions — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/johnny-english.md) - *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* (2006), Fi1m 76: France’s idiot agent, played dead straight by Jean Dujardin; sharper about the genre’s vanity — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies.md) - *A Shot in the Dark* (1964): Peter Sellers’s Clouseau at full stretch, the model for every incompetent in a good suit since - *Spy* (2015): Melissa McCarthy’s desk analyst in the field; the gadgets are the joke and the plot works - *Top Secret!* (1984), Fi1m 76: Zucker and Abrahams fire gags at the spy picture faster than you can count them — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/top-secret.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/johnny-english-reborn