Mr Bean's Holiday
Released: August 2007
Runtime: 90 minutes
Rated: GI will be very honest
up-front. I think Rowan Atkinson is a comic genius - just not as Mr Bean.
Atkinson’s various
Black Adder
series and even the lesser
The Thin Blue Line
are far superior to his Mr. Bean persona. Or perhaps the problem is not with
Mr. Bean himself but like most skits-come-movies such as some of the atrocities
from Saturday Night Live, the problem lies with taking an idea that works well
as a short television skit and trying to drag it out to a full-length movie..
After winning a dream trip to Cannes, Mr
Bean sets off for Mainland Europe where he “kidnaps” a young boy, loses his
luggage, money, and travel documents, manages to disrupt a film shoot being
directed by Willem Dafoe (sadly he doesn’t play himself), teams up with a
beautiful actress on her way to the Cannes Film Festival and ultimately reunites
the young boy with his father and manages to create a star of the young actress
all in the space of 90 minutes. But unfortunately for the audience what sounds
like a lot of movie is a bit of an endurance race in what is ultimately 90
minutes of scenes strung together to make up a rather mediocre movie.
Rowan Atkinson stars in Mr Bean's Holiday
Throughout, Atkinson gives us the Mr Bean’s
trademark rubbery facial expressions (Jim Carrey does it better) and his spastic
body contortions (Monty Python’s silly walks is funnier). Don’t get me wrong -
there are some genuinely funny bits here and indeed I did laugh out loud in a
couple of places but I also laughed out loud on occasion when I have seen the Mr
Bean television show as well (the head in the turkey bit is a classic). It just
isn’t sustainable as a full-length movie.
Interestingly enough where the movie does
work is in the cinematography (who knew that would be possible in a Mr Bean
movie!). Director Steve Bendelack and Cinematographer Baz Irvine actually
serves up some wonderful “postcard perfect” shots as Mr Bean makes his way from
Paris to Cannes.
Even at only 90 minutes this is a movie that
could have easily been completed in an hour long television slot (which would
actually be less than 45 minutes with commercial breaks).
In the end,
Mr Bean's Holiday
should have simply stayed at home this year.
