For fans of physical comedy and the first two films, Strikes Again is a satisfying capper to the trilogy. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the best way to beat a sophisticated enemy is to accidentally hit them with a fire extinguisher.
When a cyber-attack reveals the identities of every active undercover MI7 agent in Britain, the agency is left paralyzed. With no digital operatives left untraceable, the head of MI7, Pegasus (a returning Gillian Anderson), has no choice but to recall their most analog, and therefore most untraceable, asset: Johnny English. johnny english part 3
At nearly 65 during filming, Atkinson proves he has lost none of his rubber-limbed brilliance. The film leans heavily into slapstick: a disastrous restaurant sequence involving a lobster, a revolving door, and a runaway dessert trolley; a silent fight scene inside a moving train carriage that he has to reset before his opponent wakes up; and a perfectly timed seduction dance that goes horribly wrong. Unlike the rapid-fire dialogue comedy of modern films, English’s humor is patient, visual, and almost Chaplinesque. For fans of physical comedy and the first
Best for: A lazy Sunday, family movie night, and anyone who misses the art of the pratfall. With no digital operatives left untraceable, the head
The highlight sequence involves English donning a state-of-the-art VR headset to "rehearse" a high-society gala mission. Believing he is successfully navigating a room of champagne-sipping elites, he is actually wreaking havoc in the real MI7 equipment room, karate-chopping a water cooler and attempting to seduce a cleaning lady. It’s a brilliant physical comedy set-piece that doubles as a sharp satire of how disconnected our training and simulation can be from lived reality.
Having retired to teach geography at a boarding school, English is reluctantly dragged back into the field. His mission: identify the culprit behind the attack, a mysterious hacker known only as "Jason Volta," who is using a revolutionary device called "The Grey Man" to erase his digital footprint. Armed with a vintage Aston Martin DB5, a velour suit, and his trademark ineptitude, English crisscrosses the French Riviera and the Scottish Highlands, mistaking a high-tech virtual reality simulation for reality and accidentally seducing a Russian spy.
Johnny English Strikes Again (2018) is the third installment in the Rowan Atkinson-led spy comedy franchise. While it follows the familiar formula of its predecessors, it distinguishes itself by pitting its old-school, accident-prone hero against a distinctly 21st-century foe: cyberterrorism and the fetishization of technology.
