Intermission: 'Johnny English' doesn't measure up as secret-agent parody

Jim Wunderle is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

From old schoolers like Maxwell Smart and Matt Helm to genius creations such as Austin Powers and Inspector Clouseau, parodies of secret agents and super detectives have become a mainstay of the movies. The latest in the line, while not bad by any means, will leave the average viewer with one burning question. Was this film really necessary?

Johnny English is portrayed by English deadpan comedian Rowan Atkinson. English began life in the 1990s as a spokesman for the English credit card Barclaycard.

We have films based on comic book characters, characters from "Saturday Night Live," video games, amusement park rides and now ... television commercials.

Atkinson is a gifted comedian and best known in America for his role in "The Black Adder" and as the eternally silent "Mr. Bean." As for "Johnny English," the film came out in Europe in May and has already grossed $100 million. It remains to be seen if that success can be repeated on this side of the Atlantic. Fans of "Adder" and "Bean" will no doubt flock to see the film, and, while it is mildly amusing, American audiences will probably still prefer the less-subtle and more rambunctious Austin Powers.

Johnny English is a low-level bureaucrat for the British Secret Service. After a series of mishaps, the service finds itself quite short of agents, and English is given a hasty promotion.

The Crown Jewels, the pride of the English monarchy, have been stolen from the Tower of London and Johnny along with his sidekick Bough are charged with finding out whodunit and recovering the purloined jewels.

At the heart of the scheme is a Frenchman named Pascal Sauvage, played with an over-the-top accent by John Malkovich. Sauvage is a multimillionaire businessman who, he has discovered, is a distant relative of the English royal line and stands to inherit the throne should all other, more closely related, royal family members be unable to fill the position. His goal is to turn England into the world's biggest penal colony.

After trying, unsuccessfully, to force the Queen to abdicate, Sauvage threatens the one thing the Queen cares about above all else. I'll let the viewers discover for themselves what this entails.

After the abdication of the Queen, all of Great Britain is awaiting the crowning of King Pascal, little knowing of his fiendish plan. Johnny England and Bough, along with a female agent played by pop singer Natalie Imbruglia, know what's going on and are trying to expose Sauvage.

Standing in the way are the less-than-stellar talents of the ever-bumbling agent English. Atkinson shows his gifts for physical comedy as well as the ability to delivery a line with impeccable timing. The trouble is that there's not much for him to deliver. "Johnny English" is essentially a one-joke movie that rapidly wears thin.

This is surprising considering the trio of writers who fashioned the screenplay. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are veterans of two Pierce Brosnan James Bond films, "Die Another Day" and "The World is Not Enough," and William Davies penned "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot." Since the Bond films always feature a good amount of tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating humor and "Stop!" was in the same genre as "Johnny English," it's surprising that this team couldn't come up with more laughs.

While there's not as much scatological humor as in the "Austin Powers" films, when in doubt, a reference to "poo" always seems to get a laugh. Some people also may be put off by a scene in which the Archbishop of Canterbury bares his backside.

Atkinson is as good as can be expected given the material he has to work with. Ben Miller as sidekick Bough makes a good straight man, and Imbruglia fulfills her duty as the most gorgeous thing on screen at any given moment; but "Johnny English" will probably appeal the most to die-hard fans of Atkinson's TV work.

The same day I watched "Johnny English," "The Return of the Pink Panther" was on cable television. Seeing Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau only served to further point out the flaws and weak material that make up most of "Johnny English."

Home video note

On the home video front, fans of horror movies should note that the film "May" has just been released on VHS and DVD. While "May" saw very limited release in its theatrical run, the people who managed to see it tended to sing its praises.

It's been compared to classic horror stories like Stephen King's "Carrie." Rather than being merely a gore-fest, the tale follows its main character through her descent into utter madness. It's pretty psychologically unnerving at times and one of the more original horror pieces in recent memory.