Atkinson plays Bean, no wait, Johnny English

Johnny English is Bean. Well, not exactly. While technically "Johnny English" is a different movie, and though he talks more, Rowan Atkinson plays relatively the same part as always.\n English (Atkinson) is a low-level agent of England's MI5. Kept mostly to paperwork, the only chance he would ever have of going on a mission is if every other agent died. Well guess what, they do, and Bean, I mean English, bungles his way through the movie in attempts to return the crown jewels and save England. Johnny pairs up with Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia) to stop Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich, sporting an over-the-top accent), a French man trying to become the new king of England so he can turn it into the world's largest prison. \n In most movies (or comedies at least) a character has a simple goal and goes about achieving it while having the most difficult time possible. "Johnny English" plays this to the extreme and predictably so. The movie is quite obvious in this: everything that could go wrong does. For example, English claims the thieves could have not come through the ground, then falls through a hole in the ground. Basically, the movie is slapstick with English falling, tripping and hitting his head the whole way through. Besides physical comedy, "Johnny English" makes good work of the French, poking fun at everything from their food to their surrendering tendencies at every chance.\n Even though "Johnny English" is a rehash of other movies ("Austin Powers," "Naked Gun 2 1/2" and everything "Bean" related), it is funny. Admittedly, I am not a "Bean" fan, but I found myself laughing more than I thought I would. Yes, some of this is stupid, and yes, most of the plot is predictable, but Atkinson knows how to play his character for laughs and succeeds in doing so. James Bond may be suave and charming, but Johnny English is charming in a pathetic way. Atkinson is much like Sauvage's description of Johnny English: "Yes he is a fool, but he is a fool who keeps showing up." Thus, he manages to get the laughs he aims for.