Jonny English

	Along a similar vein of spy spoofs such as Austin Powers comes Johnny English, who brings a slightly more contemporary, if no less bumbling, touch to the spying game. Produced by United Kingdom (UK) production company Working Title Films, who played a key role in bringing movies such as Bean, Bridget Jones's Diary and About a Boy, to audiences around the world, Johnny English aims to be the next in a growing list of successful UK hits. Originally titled A Touch of Weevil, Johnny English is director Peter Howitt's first foray into the action/adventure comedy genre. Howitt's previous works include romantic comedy Sliding Doors and psychological thriller Antitrust. British comedian Rowan Atkinson stars as Johnny English, an accident-prone MI-7 agent on a secret mission. Atkinson is most known for his title character of Mr Bean in 1997's Bean: The Movie which took in $232 million globally. He has also received much ado for the cult TV series, Black Adder. His other recent movies include Rat Race and 2002's Scooby-Doo. Johnny English was originally created by the talented Atkinson for an award-winning series of 17 TV commercials for Barclaycard, a British credit card company. This is expected to be the first of a possible franchise of Johnny English movies if audience response is positive. In Johnny English, Atkinson is an incompetent British diplomat mistaken for Britain's most famous spy, whose mission is to retrieve Britain's crown jewels from devious French businessman Pascal Sauvage, played brilliantly by multi-faceted John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich). Pascal's diabolical scheme involves a burning ambition to become the King of England, so he can rule the land and turn it into a country-wide prison for the world's criminals, in a bid to solve an international problem of overcrowded prisons. This, of course, is not a purely altruistic move, for a hefty profit lurks if he succeeds. As all spy movies go, it is, of course, left to Johnny, who happens to be the sole surviving spy in Britain, to rescue the country and the monarchy. With sidekick Bough (Ben Miller), Johnny embarks on a quest to save the day. Malkovich turns out an excellent performance as the French arch villain Pascal Sauvage, and is amusing in his throwaway English phrases laced with a French accent. And what is a spy movie without gorgeous women, or in this case, woman? In this case, Australian pop singer Natalie Imbruglia makes her feature film debut as female double agent Lorna Campbell, who eventually joins the good guys in their quest to avoid catastrophe. Johnny English is complete with fast cars and state of the art gadgets, essential to any spy movie. If you are a fan of the Austin Powers franchise, you will not want to miss this. If otherwise, leave your brain at the door and laugh yourself silly over this slapstick movie.