Film Reviews: Johnny English Reborn and The Big Year

I saw Johnny English Reborn and The Big Year recently and both had Rosamund Pike co-starring in supporting roles as Kate Sumner, a Behavioral Psychologist  (in Johnny English Reborn) and Jessica, a housewife (in The Big Year).

Rosamund Pike had 4 films (interestingly, I've seen all 4 of them!) released in theaters this year including these two. The other two were indie films: Barney's Version, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Make-Up and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Comedy/Musical for Paul Giamatti, while Rosamund earn critical rave reviews for her supporting role as the title character's third wife and true love Miriam Grant Panofsky. I've seen this movie (and own it on Blu-ray/DVD) and loved it. Rosamund was brilliant in this film. Great movie! The other film was Burning Palms (with a big ensemble cast and told in 5 different stories that will mess you up for life...or so it says...according to the film's tagline), which was in brief and limited theatrical release. RP played the role Dedra opposite Dylan McDermott. She appeared in the first of the 5 stories told in the film (which I've seen on instant-watch on Netflix recently as well), the story was about according in this brief synopsis (via IMDB): In Santa Monica, a woman (Dedra) becomes alarmingly concerned over her fiancé's unnaturally close relationship with his teenage daughter. The movie was ok, I only watched the first story were RP was featured. She did pretty good on her part, but was disappointed on how her character ended up at the end, but of course, it's an unusual film, so what did I expect? lol...RP played 4 different yet interesting roles/characters in these 4 different films. I must say, my top favorite would be her big supporting role/character in Barney's Version. Besides these 4 films, she also starred in a TV miniseries: Women in Love that aired last March. I haven't seen it yet, as it only aired in the UK's BBC channel. I wonder if PBS Masterpiece Classic will air it next year in their fall 2012 season...Hmm, we shall see, probably not...otherwise, I won't see it unless it's released on DVD here in the U.S. or if it's streaming on Netflix or if someone uploaded it on YouTube.

Anyway, back to Johnny English Reborn and The Big Year, I wrote my own movie reviews of these films in my other blog, In The Mood For Movies Blog. I'll add my The Three Musketeers film review very soon. For now, read my reviews of these two films! Though, here's a lil' warning, they're both spoilerish, so don't scroll down any further, if you don't want to be spoiled. If you've seen both movies though, then, ignore the spoiler warning and read my reviews below!

But first, here are two new never-before-seen Johnny English Reborn promo stills featuring Rosamund Pike...

(source: The Fashion Spot)

Film Review: Johnny English Reborn

Johnny English Reborn (2011)
starring Rowan Atkinson, Rosamund Pike, Gillian Anderson, and Dominic West

Watch the trailer for Johnny English Reborn

(source: trailers)

[Warning! ... for those who haven't seen this movie and don't want to be spoiled...]

Brief synopis (via IMDB):
Rowan Atkinson returns to the role of the accidental secret agent who doesn't know fear or danger in the comedy spy-thriller Johnny English Reborn.

I saw this movie with my mother and we thought it was hilarious. We loved and enjoyed watching this film. It had plenty of laughs and action to keep you watching and entertained from beginning to end.

Rowan Atkinson is back and is as clumsy (and hilarious) as ever as the bumbling MI-7 agent Johnny English in this fun and hilarious sequel to the 2003 Johnny English film. I thought this film was so much better and was a lot more funnier than the first one. There were a lot of funny and action scenes to keep you watching as there were combinations of James Bond and Bourne films parodies in this film mix with plenty of action and comedy. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I really enjoyed watching Rowan Atkinson more in this film than the first one. There were several funny scenes that made us laughed a lot like when Johnny was in the shrinking/going up chair scene (with funny lines: "He's the Prime Minister...yeah, you wish." and "give me 24 hours." ....it made us laugh so hard, lol), the Tibet/Monk scenes (English was hilarious whenever he loses focus or concentration to the task he was doing, haha!), the scene where he chewed the gum and his voice changed, lol. Whenever he hears "Mozambique," he makes a funny face and one of his eyes twitches...lol...

As for the supporting cast, Rosamund Pike as Kate Sumner, a behavioral Psychologist and love interest to Johnny English was pretty good in her supporting role and she was a nice addition to the whole new cast of JER. It was very good to hear her British accent again (I was getting used to hearing her American accent in her other films that I've seen, which were just released recently/this year such as The Big Year, Burning Palms, and Barney's Version). Gillian Anderson (Pegasus, I think that was her name if I remember right, as that's what they call her, lol) was good here too as the new MI-7 boss of English. Daniel Kaluuya as agent Tucker was funny in some scenes with English especially the helicopter scene. Read my full Film Review: Johnny English Reborn here!

And another film review...

Film Review: The Big Year

 The Big Year (2011)
starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, Rosamund Pike,
Rashida Jones, Angelica Huston, JoBeth Williams, Brian Dennehy, and Diane Wiest

Watch the trailer for The Big Year

(source: Watchanapple2011)

 
[Warning! ... for those who haven't seen this movie and don't want to be spoiled...]

   

I saw The Big Year and guess what? I actually quite enjoyed watching it. Though I expected it to be really funny with the big trio lead stars of Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin, but it was only kind of funny and more of a dramatic kind of film with a nice story and interesting ensemble cast to go with it, which I didn't mind in the least. It was still a very good movie about "bird watching" which I didn't know (and never heard of until I've heard this movie was being made and Rosamund Pike was cast, the main reason along with the trio actors aforementioned, which I was actually interested and went to see this movie) as a sport for those bird lovers. The title of this film now made sense after seeing this movie. While it lacks a lot of humor I expected to see in this film especially with the trio of Wilson, Black, and Martin, it still had its funny and a few LOL moments here and there that made me laugh. The movie though was still a very good "bird-watching" as a sport film, which is interestingly, different than your typical sporting genre movies. This one's not really a sport movie, but about three avid bird watchers who compete to spot the rarest birds in North America at a prestigious annual event (brief description via IMDB).

I was pleasantly surprised that this movie was not a comedy, but rather a little mix of comedy and a little more on the drama, but mostly it's a movie with heart and moral lesson.

Love that this movie also focused on other supporting characters connected to the main 3 characters. Rosamund Pike, who played Jessica, Kenny's neglected wife, was pretty good in her supporting role and scenes. She actually appeared more here than I expected (especially with a big ensemble cast like this film). I felt for her character though. Poor Jess, all she wanted was to start a family with her husband and all her husband seemed to care about was doing another "big year." He does not deserved her, but she still loved him. Interesting, her character's side story has been shown a lil' more in connection to Kenny, but towards the end, they didn't show her at all or what she was up to. That was a letdown for her character, but I'm guessing she probably ended up with that handsome looking guy who did the renovations to hers and Kenny's house. I wouldn't be surprised if she did. He's a hottie and is always around when Kenny was not, lol. Read my full Film Review: The Big Year here!