Rowan Atkinson has always seemed ill at ease in the movies, at least as a leading man. The exception that proves the rule is Atkinson's alter ego Johnny English, a cross between James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.
Moderately amusing at best, Johnny English Strikes Again nonetheless has some curious features that set it apart from its predecessors. This time English is retired from the espionage game and teaching geography at a prep school.
But a chain of unlikely events brings him back into the service of the British government, led by Emma Thompson as the frazzled, image-conscious prime minister, whose government is threatened by a series of cyber attacks. The running joke is English is uniquely under-qualified for his new mission.
In a sense, this is business as usual for the character, an unworldly dimwit who insists on imagining himself as a master spy.
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