Metacritic reviews

The movie is, at times, funny enough to make you cry, and, when it's not, it moves nicely as a parody.

Once in a long while, it even comes tantalizingly close to that rarest of modern film commodities -- ribald wit.

The jokes often are corny or labored, and the story is predictable. However, Atkinson raises the movie to the level of good fun by the force of his outrageous persona and skill at physical comedy.

Rowan Atkinson's spy spoof is wildly uneven and yet, at times, nothing less than wildly entertaining.

Johnny English never builds any momentum, and Atkinson simply isn't a good enough actor to mine continued laughs from repetitive material.

By playing the boob so brilliantly, Atkinson allows us the catharsis of recognizing our own incompetencies and lack of poise.

Despite its contemporary-sounding anti-French cracks, could easily have been made 20 years ago.

All in all, Johnny English isn’t a bad effort. Rowan Atkinson is much more of a comedian than Mike Myers is, but unfortunately Myers had the spy spoof down pat.

Favorably, Atkinson’s family-friendly, rubber-limbed professionalism can revitalize even the most vapid of material, which this certainly is. Anyone who has seen an episode of Black Adder can tell you that he’s leaps and bounds funnier than this sitcom-grade bauble.

On its own modest terms, this romp delivers.