FNBE

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: TAN KAH INN
STUDENT ID NO: 0322020
FILMS SELECTED: JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN AND SPY
WORD COUNT: 809
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 28TH
SEPTEMBER 2015

2. Comparison of Similarity between Johnny English Reborn and Spy
Movies market contributes a big and steady amount of revenue to the
economy and it acts as a low cost entertainment to the society. The tickets sold as well as
revenue generated in movie industry from 1995 to 2015 by Unknown. (1997). Domestic
Movie Theatrical Market Summary 1995 to 2015. Retrieved 21st
September 2015, from
Nash Information Services, LLC website : http://www.the-numbers.com/market/. While
many types of movies are premiered each year, it is no doubt that comedy genre movie
contributes the most to the market share. As according to the data provided by The
Numbers, Comedy genre movie have a market share of 22.16%, follows by Adventure at
21.57% and Action at 17.97%. The market share by each genre from year 1995 to 2015
by Unknown (1997). Market Share for Each Genre 1995-2015. Retrieved 21st
September
2015, from Nash Information Services, LLC website :
http://www.the-numbers.com/market/genres .
In order to capture greater market share, the blend of action and comedy was
introduced back in 1930s that combines thrilling plot and courageous stunts. It is then
come to popular in 1980s when comic stars such as Eddie Murphy began casting in action
roles. This genre is light-hearted film to watch and usually involved a lot of special
effects, smashing cars, dramatic fights and hysterical chases with minimal injuries. In
addition, women are also started to involved in action comedy in year 1990 and bring the
genre to wider possibilities (SlideShare, 2015). In this assignment, comparisons between
two action comedies will be taken place and the similarity between both will be compared.
The movies chosen are Johnny English Reborn (2011), and Spy (2015).

3. First of all, the chosen movies are secret agents movies where the main cast
went undercover to eliminate possible chaos and bring the world back in peace. Even
though both movies are agent based storyline, the main cast in two movies however work
for different types of cooperation and dealt with unalike villains. Johnny English Reborn
serve the royalties, specifically Her Majesty to stop a group of international assassins
while Spy, serve CIA to infiltrate the world deadly arm dealers.
Compared to the timeline and location that took in both movies, Johnny
English Reborn and Spy movies are both filmed as modern society film where latest cars
or gadgets could be seen. They are also having similar film location for some scenes at
France, Italy. Nevertheless, Johnny English Reborn film locations are still mainly based
in UK and China while Spy film location is mostly in Hungary with limited scene in
Italy.
On the other hand, two movies are using high technology gadgets as a part of
the nature of a modern agent. In Johnny English, some high-tech gadgets such as
combat-spec wheel chair, lipstick-camouflage gun, voice-recognition car as well as
grenade-launching umbrella can be seen (Trailer Addict, 2015). As for Spy, even though
high technologies existed, the main cast, however only used basic stuff like pepper spray
and baby wipes-lookalike chloroform wipes (YouTube, 2015).
In addition, even though Rowan Atkinson played as the main cast too in
Johnny English in year 2003 and continue the casting in Johnny English Reborn, however
his silly character as ‘Mr. Bean’ has penetrated into audience minds and his cast as an
agent creates an unique situation as contrast to normal agent movies whereby the main

4. cast is always filmed by high-intelligence-perceived movie stars, for instance, Matt
Damon in Bourne Identity. This situation goes the same to Spy where the main cast,
Melissa McCarthy body condition and body shape are nowhere near the real agents’
requirement. Nonetheless, both of the main casts show the audiences how they overcome
the impossible regardless their images in the public.
Then , the box office gross tickets and budget in both movies, Johnny
English Reborn is a highly anticipated movies with the famous ‘Mr. Bean’ as main cast,
screening over 1500 screens in the USA, however, the gross tickets did not go as high as
Spy which generates a whopping 76% extra tickets in opening weekend as compared to
Johnny English with over 3700 screens in USA market (IMDB, 2015). The budget for
Spy also relatively higher than Johnny English regardless they are having a lot of
similarity in terms of technology or location.
In a nutshell, the compared movies are successful action comedy movies
where high returns have been obtained from the ticket sales. Even though there are a lot
of similarities between both movies that brings laughter to the audiences, the storyline
however creates different after-movie thoughts and bring different impact to the audience
perception in action comedy genre movies. In conclusion, unlike musical genre movies
that has low market share, or action genre that is sometimes too tension to watch, action
comedy genre is making its way up in the market share as it could literally eliminate the
stress away especially in modern society.

5. REFERENCES :
1. IMDB, 2015, Gross Ticket sold, Source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1634122/?ref_=nv_sr_2 (Johnny English Reborn),
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3079380/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (Spy)
2. SlideShare, 2015, Definition of Action Comedy, Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/NyajaCovington/action-comedy
3. Trailer Addict, 2015, Gadget used in Johnny English Reborn, Source:
http://www.traileraddict.com/johnny-english-reborn/featurette-gadgets
4. YouTube, 2015. Gadget used in Spy, Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lH4gXu52s4