Johnny English Reborn

I don’t watch a lot of comedy, but I am willing to make an exception for Rowan Atkinson. There probably isn’t a soul who isn’t familiar with Mr. Bean. Atkinson’s non-verbal acting skills are simply amazing. However, he has to rely on more than that to play a secret agent. Is this follow-up to the “so, so” 2003’s Johnny English, any good?

A Stolen Phone

Someone knocked on the door of my apartment.
“Almer?”
“Yes?”
The door opened with a shriek.
“Do you have classes?”, Sophie shouted.
“I don’t, what’s up?”
I walked down the stairwell to the landing so I could see her.
“Can you help me with something?”, she asked while looking up at me.
“A friend of mine got her phone stolen, and she traced it to some pawn shop,” she paused briefly, “so she asked me to go with her to pick it up.”

Drive

Truth be told, I wasn’t really aware of Ryan Gosling before Drive, although I vaguely recalled him from Remember the Titans. Shame on me, as he delivers a convincing performance in Drive as a man of few words. Other cast members deliver good acting work as well, notably Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks. This movie is not permeated with slick dialogue like Fast Five and it doesn’t have the cliché Michael Bay look, but instead stylistically resembles an early eighties film. All the better since it is exactly these elements that give Drive a unique feel.