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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Johnny English Reborn (Ilan Eshkeri)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you desire a lesser cousin of Edward Shearmur's snazzy
style for the first film in this franchise, Ilan Eshkeri offering decent
but ultimately more generic parody James Bond music.
Avoid it... if your attraction to this concept's music centered on the previous film's main theme, which Eshkeri mostly abandons in its original form here, a highly annoying decision to the detriment of this otherwise engaging outing.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Johnny English Reborn: (Ilan Eshkeri) While the
2003 James Bond parody film Johnny English was far from high art,
it still starred physical comedian Rowan Atkinson and therefore merited
its existence for his throngs of enthusiasts. The 2011 sequel, Johnny
English Reborn, postulates that the ridiculously lucky British
Secret Service agent, the bumbling Johnny English, actually suffered the
collapse of his career after the events of the first film due to
dereliction of duty that cost the life of a national leader in Africa.
He spends time meditating in Tibet, which entails pulling increasingly
larger stones across a sandy courtyard with his penis. The British
restore his status in MI7 (led by Gillian Anderson in this adventure) to
solve an international criminal mystery involving the day of English's
failure, and he spends the entire film chasing down the villains of the
Vortex organization and regaining his own confidence. Both Johnny
English Reborn and the third movie, 2018's Johnny English Strikes
Again, suffered from poor critical response but managed equally
impressive box office returns, Atkinson's appeal never seeming to wane.
The soundtracks for all of these films are littered with song placements
and parody usage, with any excuse made to show the actor's bizarre
dancing techniques. The score for the 2003 film featured a snazzy
espionage score by composer Edward Shearmur, with assistance from Mr.
Bean veteran Howard Goodall, and the two sequels' scores were both
handled by composers mentored by Shearmur, Johnny English Reborn
by the ascendant Ilan Eshkeri and Johnny English Strikes Again by
Goodall alone. Both scores are adequate to their task, striving for the
stylish zeal that Shearmur brought to the original, but both made the
fatal mistake of mostly abandoning the established theme for the concept
and titular character, and while they attempt to pilfer the Bond
franchise scores to the same degree, they fall far behind Shearmur in
their shamelessly adept adaptations of that sound for the sequels. In
the case of Johnny English Reborn, Eshkeri supplies some quite
decent material along the same lines, but with the panache and main
theme missing (along with a fair number of important cues on the album),
the appeal just isn't the same.
The themes and performances in Johnny English Reborn all hit the right notes but miss the over-the-top parody allures that had made the preceding score so attractive. During the spotting of the film, Eshkeri and the filmmakers came to the decision to only allude to the main theme from the first film in the bulk of this entry, largely because the character isn't truly himself. Therefore, Eshkeri adapts only part of the first phrase of Shearmur's theme (itself an adaptation of a Goodall idea from years earlier) into an equivalent of his own here, reserving statements of the full original theme for two cues that address English's past. The replacement thematic material doesn't succeed as well as Shearmur's, nor is there much continuity in action cues when they aren't explicitly stating a theme. Eshkeri doesn't apply a romance theme as the interlude bridge sequence to his main theme, instead placing his new valiant fanfare for the character in that same position within the bastardized Shearmur theme adaptation. Sadly, there is no significantly swooning material at all in Johnny English Reborn, its replacement in the dainty, ethereal "Hypnotification" not developed during the most romantic kissing scene of the story, "Johnny Reborn," which instead utilizes the new fanfare instead for English's restoration. There is a sufficient amount of specialty instrumental flair for exoticism in the work, most of it contained to the Tibet cues and "Hong Kong," though their mix isn't all that vibrant. The outright parody material includes source-like choral usage to open "Church Escape," Bill Conti-informed, hip flair early in "Wheelchair," and clear British classicism in "Buckingham Palace." But it's the themes that listeners will want to embrace here, and don't expect the album contain several of the best renditions of them. For instance, both solemn electric guitar performances of Shearmur's actual theme for English, in "Opening" and similarly rendered in the flashback during "Mozambique," are absent. The adapted version of the idea for elsewhere in the movie rearranges the second phrase and doesn't use any alternate second phrase like Shearmur had done so well; Eshkeri's take on it is far less sophisticated musically. This unsatisfying twist may be adequate in the one parallel phrase to make musical connections for the audience, and the theme's brevity in this format does lend it better to inclusion as a rhythmic device, but most of the snazzy appeal is lost in the process, and don't be surprised if you find yourself referencing the first score instead. Eshkeri's adapted franchise theme is heard at the start of the opening titles in "London" and is frequently referenced in Johnny English Reborn. It's lovingly conveyed at 0:14 and several times thereafter in short bursts during "The Toy Cupboard." It opens "Commandeering the Vessel" and "Bravo Commander" with similar swagger, is humorously plucked at 0:41 into "Golf," guides the action later in "Helicopter" and early in "Wheelchair," and is vague early in "Tucker Shoots Johnny," with a solo trumpet fragment at the end of that cue. Interestingly, Eshkeri largely drops the idea at that point in the score, replacing it with his own main fanfare for this film's story. That theme is used like an interlude to the Shearmur theme 0:22 into "London" (returning at 1:08 in the background), and fragments of it open "The Toy Cupboard." The idea receives full, swinging glory at 0:13 into "Commandeering the Vessel," building to a confident crescendo at 0:53 to close out the cue, and exists in fits and starts at 0:51 into "Helicopter." The fanfare dominates "Wheelchair," briefly interjecting at 0:58 and leading at 1:54 on solo flute before forming a climax at the end of the cue. It turns melodramatically tragic at the start of "Timoxybarbobutenol" and appropriately goes missing for a while, returning in a tragic rendition that becomes fuller at the start of "Johnny Reborn," by which point the fanfare truly is the score's romance identity as well. It dominates the subsequent action after a victorious announcement at 0:29 into "Cliff Jump." Eshkeri does use a specific action motif in several places, nimble and rhythmic throughout "Rooftop Chase," becoming more prominent at 0:26 into "Commandeering the Vessel," vaguely informing the suspense in the first minute of "Lipstick Gun," and returning at 1:20 into "Cliff Jump." The villains receive a generic but sufficient motif that occupies all of "Karlenko Arrives" and "Ambrose," sneaks into "Poisoning the Drink," and quietly menaces the latter half of "The Manic Phase." The Rolls-Royce car receives the best motif in the score, swooning and romantic at 1:04 into "The Toy Cupboard" and returning when the car cuts itself out of confinement with a laser, a cue not included on the album. This cue, the two with Shearmur's full theme, and all of the Tibet material, including ethnic renditions of the franchise adaptation, were needed on album, for the narrative suffers without it. The same is true of the decent Bond-like end credits song, "I Believe in You," performed by Rumer. Without that, the album ends on the preceding stinger without satisfaction. In the end, Johnny English Reborn acquits itself in the film but lacks the magic of the prior score, and its album definitely needs reborn in a longer presentation. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 46:09
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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