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Johnny English

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This article is about the 2003 British film. For the American civil servant, see John F. English. For people named John English, see John English (disambiguation).

Johnny English
British release poster
Directed byPeter Howitt
Written byNeal Purvis
Robert Wade
William Davies
Produced byTim Bevan
Eric Fellner
Mark Huffam
StarringRowan Atkinson
Natalie Imbruglia
Ben Miller
John Malkovich
CinematographyRemi Adefarasin
Edited byRobin Sales
Music byEdward Shearmur
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • 11 April 2003 (2003-04-11)
Running time
88 minutes[2]
CountryUnited Kingdom[1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million[2]
Box office$160,583,018[2]

Johnny English is a 2003 British[1] comedy film parodying the James Bond secret agent genre. The film stars Rowan Atkinson, Ben Miller and John Malkovich. Atkinson had previously appeared in the 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again. The screenplay was written by Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, with William Davies, and the film was directed by Peter Howitt. The film grossed a total of $160 million worldwide.[2] The film was followed by a sequel, 2011's Johnny English Reborn.

Plot

Johnny English is an inept MI7 agent with dreams of being their most trusted employee. After Agent One dies in a submarine accident (courtesy of English making a mistake on checking the submarine hatch code), the remaining agents are assassinated via a bombing at Agent One’s funeral (again courtesy of English's incompetence at security), leaving English as the lone survivor. English is assigned to follow a plot to steal the Crown Jewels, which are on display at the Tower of London. At the display, English is head of security, and meets the mysterious Lorna Campbell. The power is cut, and the jewels are stolen. During the chaos, English knocks out a security guard in the process and pretends to fight the assailant (in reality fighting himself). He later makes up a false description of the assailant to Pegasus. English and his assistant Angus Bough find the jewels were removed via a hole dug beneath their display case. The two follow a tunnel, confronting the two thieves Klaus Vendetta and Dieter Klein. The two escape in a hearse, with English trying to pursue them, but mistakes another hearse for the escape vehicle, crashing a funeral until Bough comes to his aid.

English connects the thieves to Pascal Sauvage, a French prison entrepreneur who helped restore the Crown Jewels. Pegasus, head of MI7, finds the claims of his involvement absurd and warns English not to involve Sauvage. In the car park, English and Bough are attacked by the thieves, but are unharmed beyond Bough getting a nose bleed (courtesy of English mistaking him for one of the thieves and covering up for himself by saying that there could have been other thieves and adamantly insisting that Bough drop the issue and move on). English again encounters Lorna Campbell in a Japanese restaurant as he recognized her motorcycle. During their meeting English is suspicious of her since he has seen her at two of their crime scenes and her records cannot be found on any government computer. English and Bough decide to break into Sauvage’s headquarters via parachutes, but English lands in the Royal London Hospital by mistake taking hospital employees hostage until he sees the "SAUVAGE" building with Bough inside. He then covers for himself by telling the employees that the hold up was just a test of their emergency response systems while telling Bough that he merely did a precautionary sweep of the immediate environment. Going to the correct building, the two learn Sauvage, who is a descendant of William the Conqueror, plans on making himself king, using an imposter to impersonate the Archbishop of Canterbury. Lorna arrives, revealed to be an Interpol agent tracking Sauvage. With evidence of Sauvage’s involvement, English crashes a party hosted by Sauvage but he is suspended from work by Pegasus.

With English knowing their plans, Sauvage scraps the fake Archbishop and instead sends his minions to force Queen Elizabeth II to abdicate by threatening her Corgies, causing the entire line of succession to be swept clean for Sauvage to become king. Lorna visits the depressed English, now in charge of the assignment by Pegasus, and convinces him to travel with her to Sauvage’s French chateau to spy on him. Eavesdropping on Sauvage’s meeting with renowned criminals, English and Lorna learn Sauvage plans to turn the United Kingdom into the world’s biggest prison when he becomes king. English and Lorna are exposed when the former accidentally activates a microphone, and they are taken prisoner. English tries to steal the DVD of Sauvage’s plan but picks up the wrong DVD. Bough rescues the two and they race to stop Sauvage’s coronation.

English crashes the coronation and discovers the Archbishop is the genuine article. Undeterred, English orders Bough to play the DVD, only to find it is camera footage of himself dancing in his bathroom to “Does Your Mother Know” by ABBA, Sauvage having bugged English’s house beforehand, much to Pegasus's disgust. English sneaks away but swings in on a wire to steal St. Edward’s Crown from Sauvage. Sauvage angrily shoots at English with a pistol, causing him to drop the crown. Moments before Sauvage is crowned king, English lands on the throne and is crowned instead. In his singular act as king, English has Sauvage arrested and restores the Queen to the throne, requesting a knighthood as a reward.

In the final scene, English and Lorna drive to southern France for a romantic holiday, only for English to accidentally launch Lorna out the car by pressing the ejection seat button. Lorna lands in a hotel swimming pool, where Bough happens to be vacationing as well as the assailant that English described to Pegasus earlier in the film.

Cast

Production

Before the release of Maybe Baby, Atkinson signed up to star as a spoof 007, with news becoming official in March of 2000.[3]

In July 2002, Johnny English started principal photography. The film shot for 14 weeks, filming at Shepperton Studios, on location in London and St. Albans, and finally setting down in Monte Carlo for two days, to complete filming the final scene.[4] In September 2002, it was announced that Natalie Imbruglia, whom wrote the theme tune for Johnny English, would star alongside Atkinson.[5]

The character of Johnny English himself is based on a similar character called Richard Latham who was played by Atkinson in a series of British television advertisements for Barclaycard.[6] The character of Bough (pronounced 'Boff') was retained from the advertisements though another actor, Henry Naylor, played the part in the ads. Some of the gags from the advertisements made it into the film, including English incorrectly identifying a waiter, and inadvertently shooting himself with a tranquiliser ballpoint pen.

Filming locations

  • Some scenes were filmed at Canary Wharf in London— indeed, the film duplicates the single real tower into two identical ones (albeit on the real site) for the fictional London Hospital and Sauvage's headquarters at 1 Canada Square.
  • The scenes set in Westminster Abbey were filmed in St. Albans Abbey:[7] though this connection is solely implied through the dialogue — for this footage is never intercut with footage of the real abbey's exterior. The interior (with the televisual screen hiding the St Albans organ) is clearly St Albans. The choir singing in the coronation scene is St Albans Cathedral Choir.
  • Both the exteriors and interiors in the opening credits sequence scene are in Mentmore Towers.[8]
  • 'Sandringham' is Hughenden Manor.[9]
  • The exterior and interior of MI7's headquarters which English enters at the start is Freemasons' Hall, London,[7] which is also used as Thames House (the MI5 headquarters) in Spooks.
  • The scenes where Johnny English drives into Dover, Kent along the A20 road (with Dover Castle in the background) and then enters the Port of Dover (with a "Dover Ferry Terminal" sign, Dover's Athol Terrace and the White Cliffs of Dover in the background) to catch a ferry to France, were all shot on location.[10]
  • The exterior of Sauvage's French château is actually the castle atop St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.[7]
  • A scene was filmed in Hong Kong, China.
  • The scenes in Brompton Cemetery were filmed there.[7]

Reception

The film holds a 33% approval rating on the review site Rotten Tomatoes based on 116 reviews with the consensus "A tame spy spoof that elicits infrequent chuckles."[11] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 51 based on 32 reviews.[12]

Soundtrack

All tracks written by Edward Shearmur and performed by London Metropolitan Orchestra unless otherwise noted.

  1. "A Man for All Seasons" (Hans Zimmer, Robbie Williams) – Robbie Williams
  2. "Theme from Johnny English" (Howard Goodall)
  3. "Russian Affairs"
  4. "A Man of Sophistication"
  5. "Kismet" (Written by Gay-Yee Westerhoff) – Bond
  6. "Truck Chase"
  7. "The Only Ones" – Moloko
  8. "Parachute Drop"
  9. "Pascal's Evil Plan"
  10. "Theme from Johnny English (Salsa Version)" (Howard Goodall) – Bond
  11. "Off the Case"
  12. "Cafe Conversation"
  13. "Into Pascal's Lair"
  14. "Zadok the Priest" – Handel
  15. "Does Your Mother Know" – ABBA
  16. "For England"
  17. "Riviera Highway"
  18. "Agent No. 1"

Home media

Johnny English was released on DVD on 13 January 2004 and on Blu-ray on 28 February 2012 along with its sequel Johnny English Reborn. The film was released on Netflix on February 2016.

Sequel

A sequel, Johnny English Reborn, was released in October 2011. Filming for the sequel began in September 2010, seven years after the release of the original and concluded in March 2011. The film follows Johnny English, now training in Asia after being disgraced in an earlier mission, as he attempts to foil a plot to assassinate the Chinese Premier.

References

  1. ^ a b Lemire, Christy (21 October 2011). "Film review: 'Johnny English' fires wildly, but mostly misses comic targets". Deseret News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 22 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c d "Johnny English (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
  3. ^ "Rowan Atkinson to star as spoof 007". theguardian.com. 2 March 2000. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  4. ^ "Johnny English - Production Notes". contactmusic.com. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  5. ^ "Natalie Imbruglia Takes On Hollywood". cinema.com. 20 September 2002. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  6. ^ Stuart Heritage (13 April 2011). "Johnny English Reborn: I spy with my little eye …". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d "Johnny English (2003)". British Film Locations. 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  8. ^ "Johnny English filming locations". UK Onscreen. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
  9. ^ "Hughenden Manor". National Trust. Retrieved 8 December 2007.
  10. ^ Kent Film Office. "Kent Film Office Johnny English Film Focus".
  11. ^ "Johnny English Movie Reviews, Pictures – Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  12. ^ "Johnny English Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved 20 November 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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