Prime Time: Rat Race (2001)

With Jerry Zucker in the director's chair and a whole load of talented comedic performers in front of the camera, Rat Race certainly sets itself up as a film that wants to be in the top tier of modern comedies. The fact that it isn't, and the fact that it fails by such a large margin, is as surprising as it is disappointing.

The main premise is very simple, and very similar to another whacky comedy from decades ago, one that made use of an all-star cast. A group of people are selected to participate in a race to a locker some distance away. The first person to get there will get to keep the contents of the locker. $2M. It's that simple. Yes, this is basically a reworking of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

There are moments that work in Rat Race, and some of those moments provide some hearty laughs. Jon Lovitz and Kathy Najimy bundling their two kids into a car that once belonged to Adolf Hitler pans out pretty much as you think it would, and is a real highlight, and there's a fun cameo from Kathy Bates, playing a woman obsessively trying to get people to buy one of her squirrels. A bus full of Lucille Ball fans also provides some fun. But there are so many other moments that either don't work as well as they should or just don't work entirely. The characters played by Seth Green and Vince Vieluf don't work, and neither do those played by Whoopi Goldberg and Lanei Chapman. Breckin Meyer and Amy Smart are helped by the script, although hindered by the fact that they're, well, Breckin Meyer and Amy Smart (to be fair, Meyer isn't as bad as Smart . . . but few actors are). Cuba Gooding Jr. is just fine, as is Rowan Atkinson, and John Cleese is helped along by super-white, larger, teeth to define his character.

Perhaps hampered by the script from Andy Breckman, Zucker feels like he could have been replaced by anyone in the director's chair. There's no sign of someone monitoring quality control, there's no sign of anyone taking on the responsibility to make the best of every comedy moment. All you get is a star vehicle without any big enough stars, but it's also very much a time capsule from 2001. From the cast to the plotting, despite it hewing so close to that 1963 movie mentioned above, and to the inclusion of Smash Mouth in the finale (not just a song, they get to make a cameo appearance and interact with all of the main players).

While it's not a film I'd recommend to anyone in the mood for a modern comedy, it IS a film I'd recommend to anyone looking for some easy entertainment that keeps throwing enough at the wall that one or two bits should stick. You can find a multitude of better comedies out there, but this is for people who want some recognisable faces and a general sense of familiarity (Atkinson, for example, is doing little more than a Mr. Bean act with an accent on top of his usual schtick). Passable enough. Just not often very good.

5/10

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Yule Love It: Bernard And The Genie (1991)

A British Christmas TV movie forgotten by most (including myself, it was put back on my radar by someone mentioning it as one they still enjoyed), Bernard And The Genie is strange and silly, ever-so-British, and not without pleasures for anyone who likes the central cast.

Alan Cumming plays Bernard Bottle, a man tasked with buying fine art for his employer (Charles Pinkworth), who then tries to sell it for huge profits. Well, that WAS his job. He gets fired at the very beginning of this tale, and his boss really wants to make his life miserable. It couldn't get much worse, as Bernard soon finds out that his girlfriend, Judy (Andrée Bernard) is sleeping with his best mate, Kevin (Kevin Allen). On the plus side, he finds himself with a genie (Josephus, played by Lenny Henry) and a way to make anything he wishes come true. Not just three wishes, oh no, but as many wishes as he wants.

Directed by Paul Weiland, and written by Richard Curtis, Bernard And The Genie never attempts to be anything other than what it is, an amusing little British TV movie to help fill the schedules during the Christmas season. Despite being a 1991 production, it's quaint and dated enough already to feel very much like something put out in the 1980s. In fact, I was surprised to see what Curtis had written before this, because his script here feels very much like the kind of juvenile and fantastical comedy you could make when reworking a classic tale for some school project (and as I once did this very thing with A Christmas Carol, I am speaking from experience).

The wishes are all easily realised with some editing and a variety of props (or cameo stars, in the shape of UK celebs such as Melvyn Bragg, Bob Geldof, and Gary Lineker), and everything is quite predictable, but the fun here is just watching people work in something that is designed to serve as pure family entertainment. A world onscreen that we all know, with an added sprinkling of magic over it to sweeten some of the gloomier moments.

Henry is a lot of fun as the genie, as expected, and Cumming is enjoyably naive and optimistic in the role of Bernard, a man who seems destined to be kept down in life because of his good nature. And, here ye this well, Atkinson is a scene-stealer as the nasty boss, always using the word ye whenever possible, and being SO outrageously harsh to Bernard, in a way that borders on the absolutely deranged and obsessive, that it's both horrendous and hilarious at the same time. The other person worth mentioning is Angela Clarke (billed as Angie Clarke), portraying a young woman who is introduced to Bernard by Josephus, and who seems to not mind the oddness of the awkward pair.

With the quality, and quantity, of seasonal fare having increased dramatically over the past few years, there's no real reason to ever put this high on your list of prospective viewings. It's perfectly fine though, for what it is, and those who enjoyed it when they first saw it will probably always have a soft spot for it.

5/10

There doesn't seem to be any decent release of this out there, but it's easy enough to view

Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)

I wonder who thought that now was a good time to bring back the character of Johnny English, a rather arrogant man who often has ideas he lacks the skill to turn into action, who views himself as superior to his global counterparts, despite consistently proving otherwise, and who seems stuck in a haze of past former glories that are formed from chance events, misconceptions, and moments of standing on the shoulders of others. On second thoughts, it makes perfect sense that this character came back now. But is this new movie any good?

Sort of.

The plot sees Johnny English (Atkinson reprising the role, of course) being the last resort, yet again, when a national emergency needs a hero to avert disaster. This time the disaster is caused by a cyber-criminal. English is reunited with Bough (Ben Miller), he has some classic gadgets to help him along, and also gets the chance to become smitten with a woman named Ophelia Bhuletova (Olga Kurylenko).

There are some good laughs to be had here, a couple of set-pieces made me chuckle throughout, but perhaps not enough to warrant an entire new adventure for the UK's most hapless spy (although, in fairness, this balances the character out between the useless man we first met and the more skilled agent of the second movie, albeit rusty after his years not being in active service). I will always laugh at a scene that has Rowan Atkinson dancing to an intense dance tune, but that can be done without a whole Johnny English movie framing it. Likewise, the sequence in which Atkinson dons a VR headset and causes havoc in London is a lot of fun, but also feels as if it could have been reworked within a better narrative.

Because for all it gets right, and director David Kerr (making his theatrical feature debut after a LOT of impressive TV work) certainly keeps everything moving along briskly enough, in line with the light and amusing script by William Davies (who also wrote the first film), there's an inescapable feeling that we've seen it all before, done better, or we're seeing something that could have been part of a much fresher experience. English is a character trotted out again when he should probably have been left in retirement, although that is a lot of what the film uses to get laughs.

As for the performances, everyone joins in with gusto. Atkinson and Miller make a good duo, once again, with the latter particularly entertaining during the many times he chooses not to comment after yet another disastrous episode or lapse in judgement. Kurylenko is the kind of glamorous and dangerous woman she can play in her sleep, Jake Lacy is a tech whizz who may just be the most obvious link to the cyber-terror, and Emma Thompson is a hoot as a Prime Minister who gets through each bad day with sheer force of will and canny decision-making. And alcohol.

Maybe slightly better than the first movie, especially during a wonderful opening sequence that shows English in his new role as a teacher, but not as good as the second, this is a third outing ultimately undone by how completely unnecessary it feels.

6/10

You can buy a boxset here.
Americans can buy the movie here.

Netflix And Chill: Johnny English Reborn (2011)

I have no idea what movie I saw, and so disliked, some years ago but it seems that it wasn't this one. Or, if it was, I was in some kind of terrible mood that completely clouded my judgement. Because Johnny English Reborn made me laugh a lot. It's silly, it's predictable (seriously, if you cannot spot the main villain as soon as they appear then I'll be amazed), and it's superior to the first outing in a few key ways.

Atkinson returns to play the main character, a man we last saw basking in the glow of success. That glow has long faded, after an incident in Mozambique that was so bad that he even had his knighthood removed, and he has spent a long time training with Tibetan monks. But an opportunity for redemption awaits when he is requested back by MI7. There's a plot brewing to kill the Chinese Premier and the main lead will only talk to English. Partnered up with a young man named Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya) and armed with the latest gadgets, English is determined to foil the plot. And he's a lot more skilled than he used to be.

There's a level of polish and ambition here that was missing from the first film, although I think it may have been possible here as a direct result of that film's success. And it also does a great job of delivering what audiences want more of while not simply rehashing all of the previous highlights.

Director Oliver Parker oversees everything with a sense of confidence and style, working with a great script from Hamish McCool that, sensibly, makes the main character a much better agent than he used to be, although he still lacks essential knowledge and social skills while remaining oblivious to his own failings. Rather than just derive laughs from the ineptitude and clumsiness of English, McCool gives the character a different flavour. He's an agent who now compensates for his failings with new techniques and tricks.

Atkinson has just as much fun in his role, perhaps even more so with the moments that allow him to look a lot cooler than he ever has before (a chase sequence in which he relentlessly, but sedately, strides along after a daredevil practitioner of parkour is a highlight in the first half that best rings the changes), and the supporting cast is even stronger than it was for his last spy adventure. Kaluuya is as likeable as ever in his role, Gillian Anderson is the weary boss, Dominic West is the standard British agent in the mould that we're all more familiar with, and Rosamund Pike is a behavioural psychologist who obviously finds herself fascinated by English, and you also get small roles for Stephen Campbell Moore, Richard Schiff, Tim McInnerny, and Pik Sen Lim (as a deadly assassin).

If you enjoyed the first film then you're likely to enjoy this. There's even a chance that, like me, you enjoy this one even more. And I'm looking forward to checking out the next instalment.

7/10

Here's a triple-pack for you.
Americans can buy the same set here.

Netflix And Chill: Johnny English (2003)

Movies come from many places. Original ideas (don't laugh, this does still happen occasionally, it's just not the source for 95% of the big names you'll see advertised at your local multiplex), TV spin-offs, tales springboarding from real events, and reworked board games. But very few other movies, if any, have been developed after a successful series of adverts. Beginning his life in a series of Barclaycard adverts, Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) was a comedic riff on the James Bond character. Never that savvy, pretty hopeless with the gadgets, and yet still trying to give off that image of unflappable cool, he was the kind of character that it would make sense to create a movie around.

The plot sees every other MI7 agent in the land killed during the funeral of one top agent (who died because of misinformation given to him by English). With nobody else available, English is tasked with keeping an event secure that will focus on a display of the Crown Jewels in the Tower Of London. Those jewels are stolen, which takes English on a journey that will lead him and his partner (Angus Bough, played by Ben Miller) on a collision course with Pascal Edward Sauvage (John Malkovich), a Frenchman who has been celebrated for a series of "superprisons".

Since making his feature debut with Sliding Doors, director Peter Howitt was, for the first few movies that had him in the big chair, a fairly safe pair of hands. None of his films were particularly memorable, but most of them did exactly what they were supposed to do. Johnny English sits perfectly among those titles.

What you have is a script by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and William Davies that feels incredibly light, focusing on a number of plot points while leaving a few spaces here and there in which Atkinson can do the kind of physical comedy that he does so well. It hits all of the required Bond-isms, not surprising as Purvis and Wade have been working on that franchise for the past twenty years, but doesn't do quite enough to make the comedic set-pieces as funny as they could be.

That's all pretty much left to Atkinson, who is good, but never great. Constrained by the suit he has to wear, Atkinson is left to bumble around like an inferior Inspector Clouseau, with too many of the jokes either obvious or just falling flat. There are minor chuckles throughout most scenes, but very few big belly laughs. Miller is excellent in the role of suffering assistant, however, and Malkovich clearly has a lot of fun with his role. You also get Natalie Imbruglia doing a decent job as the beautiful woman mixed up in everything somehow.

There's something to be said, of course, for entertainment of this nature. Genuinely fun for all, fairly inoffensive, and paced and timed almost to perfection. In that way, and with the 007-like music cues running through it, this works well. It just didn't make me laugh as much as expected, considering how much I often enjoy Atkinson's style of comedy.

6/10

Here's a triple-pack for you.
Americans can buy the same set here.

Yule Love It: Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)

A twist on the classic Dickensian tale that features a fine British comedy creation, Blackadder's Christmas Carol is a wonderful standalone tale that features plenty of seasonal trimmings alongside the expected insults and wordplay.

I would say that even those new to the character could easily watch this and enjoy it, but it's more accurate to say that you should go into this at least knowing that Blackadder is a sneaky, self-centred, manipulator who often finds his plans undone by either his gormless assistant, Baldrick, or the actions of others around him who somehow always manage to get the upper hand. Once you know that much then you're all set.

Contrary to every other portrayal of the character, and why it is so important to know him before watching this special, things start with us being introduced to an uncharacteristically kind and pleasant Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson in what is, in my view anyway, his finest role). He intends to spend Christmas with his assistant (yes, Baldrick is still as dim-witted as ever, and played by Tony Robinson, as ever). When a spirit (Robbie Coltrane) accidentally enters his home, Blackadder asks to see visions of his past and future, leading to a revelation that turns the classic morality of the tale on its head.

Director Richard Boden had some experience of directing TV shows before this, and would go on to direct Blackadder Goes Forth, as well as many other shows afterward. He does fine here, although this is a fairly thankless task when the focus is always on the script and performances, and obviously proved himself good enough to oversee what would be the final season.

Written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, Blackadder easily sits higher up in the echelons of British comedy. Many people point to the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth as one of the greatest moments in any sitcom, and rightly so, as it moved from the comedy to a poignant statement on the horror of war, and every season had many highlights (even the first season that had the main character not yet turned into the wonderful monstrosity he would become). This special episode was aired in between the third and the fourth season, which means it could easily have been a filler without as much care being given to it. Instead, Curtis and Elton clearly revel in the opportunity to rework the beloved Christmas classic, finding their way into the narrative by twisting everything to great comedic effect and then lacing each scene with the usual selection of hilarious dialogue.

Atkinson has never been better than when acting in this role (and, yes, I know that's saying something  when you think of his brilliant comedic turns), Robinson is a perfect foil to him, and the supporting cast, from Coltrane to Hugh Laurie, Vanessa Richardson to Stephen Fry, and Jim Broadbent and Miriam Margolyes, are all perfect. Many of them are reprising roles they played over the previous seasons of the show, relaxing back into them like a comfortable piece of favourite clothing.

If you have time during the holiday season, please do watch every episode ever of Blackadder. But if you can only watch one then give this a watch. It's a classic. Well, it's at least some kind of classic.

9/10

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