Metacritic reviews

The laughs, including the big laughs, keep coming right up to the closing seconds.

More a resuscitation than a rebirth, Johnny English Reborn finds British comedian Rowan Atkinson reviving his spoof spy character with this enjoyable if somewhat wheezy reprise.

Johnny English Reborn never quite ignites, even though it starts out promisingly enough.

All that matters with efforts like this is whether the cookie-cutter plotting serves up enough situations for Atkinson to contort himself into and out of jams. After all, are the narratives what you remember from the "Pink Panther" movies? Or the silly things, like that Clouseau could so easily get his finger caught in a spinning globe?

Fans of sophisticated humor may feel empathy with, if not sympathy for, the lead character on those many occasions he is kicked in the nuts.

Johnny English Reborn's sharpest gags riff on its protagonist's unshakeable Britishness.

Even the most desperately deprived secret-agent devotee will find little to cheer in this yawn-tastic 007 send-up.

As ticklish as one might find the idea of an equivalent Mr. Bean character occupying the driver's seat of a James Bond parody, it's likely that even a competent manifestation of such a scenario would pale in comparison to what Mike Myers and Jay Roach pulled off with apparent ease in their Austin Powers films.

After a fast, funny start, the new sequel, Johnny English Reborn, proves to be more of the same.

Atkinson's fans are likely to rejoice as the comedian twists his face and body to and fro, but the rest of us will not be recruited.