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Johnny English Strikes Again

Cheerfully mediocre spy spoof

When all of Britain’s secret agents are outed in a cyber-attack, MI7 reluctantly drags the title spy out of retirement to identify and stop the evil hacker. Okay, the entire Johnny English franchise was sabotaged even before the first installment (this is the third) by Austin Powers and other better spy spoofs. Rowan Atkinson soldiers on, but this is no Mr. Bean. This gently mediocre bit of lowbrow absurdist British comedy is unencumbered by plot or originality. That said, perhaps I was in a silly mood when I saw it, but despite its shortcomings, I appreciated the production values and Atkinson’s spot-on comic timing, and chuckled frequently. (89 min)