Johnny English

Lookout America, slapstick is back! In Bean form! Everybody’s favorite mute, British comic Rowan Atkinson hits Stateside theaters ready to wow with his outrageous—you might want to sit down for this—spoof of British spy movies. It’s not that Atkinson isn’t funny; it’s just that…well, it pretty much is that he isn’t funny. But it’s also that we’ve already seen these jokes beaten to death in the last three installments of the Austin Powers series. The plot goes something like this: When Johnny English (Atkinson) continues to ruin British Secret Service missions—resulting in the death of every employed agent—he’s the only one left standing to foil the plot of the evil Pascal Sauvage (a visibly embarrassed John Malkovich). A number of misunderstandings and pratfalls later, and credits roll. Even the stunning Natalie Imbruglia, as the implausible love interest, couldn’t rouse our interest beyond the opening sequence. Lesson learned: leave British spoofing to the Yanks, Bean.