Strikes again: Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) comes out of retirement for a new mission.

‘Johnny English Strikes Again’ is a funny movie, but only because of the faces you see on the screen.

When British spy Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) puts on the attire of a knight during a G-12 summit in Scotland, he cannot seem to get out of it. When he tries to apply lubricant, they only facilitate a slip. This ineptitude is only permitted in Johnny English Strikes Again, where, much like in the previous two films from 2003 and 2011, the stars will always align for our clumsy protagonist.

And Johnny English Strikes Again is a dumb movie. It does, however, draw comfortable, effortless laughs thanks to the shenanigans that English and his loyal partner Bough (Ben Miller, from the first movie) pull off. Here’s the setup for the jokes, “here’s how things work” followed by exactly how they do not work. Then there are accidents. That’s it. That’s the movie. Of course we know a car is going to run out gas the second English says that an Aston Martin runs on a hefty reserve.

The plot concerns the retired spy, who is back on a mission, temporarily giving up his teaching job at a school after a cyberattack exposes the identities of MI7 agents. A Luddite, he relies on Bough and a slew of items: exploding jelly bean, pills that either put you to sleep or stimulate you, an exoskeleton device and more. He sets out to France, where he encounters the suspicious Russian woman Ophelia (Olga Kurylenko), sets fire to a restaurant and dances with abandon.

In the meantime, there’s the prime minister, played by decorated actress Emma Thompson, in a role that can be best described as fairly underused. She herself is also inept in her own way; vanity does seem like the number one thing on her mind when cyberattacks freeze London’s road traffic system. So she asks the slimy Silicon Valley juggernaut, Jason Volta (Jake Lacy), to help her out.

Suspicious: French actress Olga Kurylenko plays a Russian named Ophelia.

The strengths of Johnny English Strikes Again are placed on Atkinson, who is an icon of outright silliness thanks to his role as Mr. Bean. English and Bean are different — the spy talks and doesn’t think like a child — but Atkinson’s mannerisms could carve out a universe where the characters live in.

Atkinson cannot save the humor from being overly stretched. The jokes are constantly there, but after a while, they become predictable. Directed competently by David Kerr from a script written by Johnny English returnee William Davies, Johnny English Strikes Again is a very physical comedy; most of the jokes are accidental bits that English always falls into.

A micro example of the movie’s tiredness would be a scene in which English goes on a virtual simulation to sniff out something from Volta’s house. Wandering off onto the streets of London where he inadvertently kicks an old lady in a wheelchair outside of a cafe and hits random people, it reminds me of the scene in Mr. Bean Holiday where Bean uses a compass and walks into everything in his way.

Atkinson carries a lot of weight in Johnny English Strikes Again, which saves the otherwise overly simple plot from its own turgidity.

— Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Johnny English Strikes Again

(Studio Canal, Working Title Films; 89 minutes;)
Director: David Kerr
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Ben Miller, Emma Thompson, Olga Kurylenko, Adam James