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Movie Review: Mr. Bean’s Holiday
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Tony D, Hardcore Film Maniac   |  

Mr. Bean's Holiday“Come on, everybody, it’s gonna be great! Dr. Bean is a genius of the very highest order!” – Peter MacNicol, “Bean”

Let’s start this off on the right spot: if you don’t like Mr. Bean, don’t fucking see this movie. Now that I got that out of the way… If you do like Mr. Bean, you should be happy. It contains jokes that are pretty much just like the original TV show. I am a self-confessed “Bean”-er (1. person who likes “Mr. Bean”; 2. a racial slur. I’m number 1). I grew up watching Mr. Bean when I was young, and I caught the first midnight showing for Bean: The Movie when I was five. Therefore, I liked Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I know not too many people (er, anyone who didn’t put their eight dollars in the ten million gross just for the U.S.) like “Mr. Bean,” and they often call him “pain in their assholes,” but for them people that do (in the U.S., of course, since most people in England pretty much call him God), good for you guys. Now, if you guys can all say the same thing about Uwe Boll, we could be getting somewhere…

There is no particular plot to Mr. Bean’s Holiday. All you really do need to know is what the trailer shows you. Mr. Bean wins a trip to the south of France (or Cannes) and being the genius that he is, he fucks many things up along the way. He travels with a kid, who Mr. Bean causes his father to lose, and takes him along to go find his father (because this kid’s father is France’s judge at the Cannes Film Festival). Along the way, Mr. Bean dances his way for money (much like what we saw in Superbad, which seemed very improvised by Atkinson and the kid themselves), runs in with a big shot American film director played by Willem Dafoe (funny, his film basically does repeat ‘nothing’ over and over, which is just what he has been doing for the past few years), and is wanted by the French police for “kidnapping” the child. And now that he has actress Sabine involved and wanted for being an accomplice, whatever does Mr. Bean do but get himself into more serious shit? I’m sure that even people who haven’t watched a single episode of Mr. Bean know what I’m talking about here.

Mr. Bean’s Holiday is what us “Bean” fans have been waiting for over ten years for. Was it worth the wait? Actually it could be a yes or a no, as I would go further into it in later paragraphs. This movie certainly won’t appeal to everyone, where it sounds like a Dumb and Dumber type of film. But it actually isn’t. There are references from Dumb and Dumber here and there, the most noticable being the scene where he is hitchhiking. And it basically creates a reference to tons of road trip films. Rowan Atkinson and director Steve Bendelack definitely did their homework watching films about road trips (though I wonder how fun of a time they had watching RV and Road Trip in preparation for the film), and it shows. Mr. Bean’s Holiday doesn’t fail as far as laughs go.

But it does fail in other places. Mr. Bean’s Holiday doesn’t have a strong plot like the first movie did, but I’m sure that even you couldn’t really complain about it. The first one had a very strong plot, which is why I call the first one not a Mr. Bean movie. They still had the accidential jokes in that one, but there was too much plot, too much that was going on. People who were young (like myself) didn’t understand what the hell was going on, but all I knew was that Mr. Bean fucked up with a turkey on his head. And it is probably understandable why. The first movie was rated PG-13, where this one was rated G. However, don’t get that rating wrong. People who are real big fans of the TV show will really like this one, much more than the first one, because this doesn’t follow a plot, and it has more jokes in it than the first one.

However, I am a film reviewer, and I’m looking for plot when I review a film. That’s where the film goes wrong. Where the first one had TOO much plot, the second one had TOO little plot, or possibly, no plot at all. We may not need a plot when we have a film like Mr. Bean’s Holiday, but we certainly do need a reason as to why he does win this contest. He just magically appears there with a ticket, but if that was all that we had to actually know, I would have been fine with it and probably bumped up the rating to half of star. And Mr. Bean’s Holiday really isn’t all that bad as what film critics claim to be. Most of them have no taste, and the taste that they do have rarely matters, since most critics are all in for themselves anyway. Most critics don’t even like the character, so that tells you what I said in the first sentence. If you don’t like him, stay away. But if you do like the character, you would have seen Mr. Bean’s Holiday by now, right?

And it is Rowan Atkinson that really does rule. I mean, who else could you get to play this guy? Stephen Fry? FUCK NO. Atkinson claims that this is the last film where he plays the character of “Bean,” but I seriously doubt it. If he is continuing acting (which I’m sure he is), Atkinson pretty much plays Mr. Bean in almost every film he is in. Rat Race, Johnny English, and The Witches are all pretty much his same character, but I will give him credit for Keeping Mum and Love Actually, where he doesn’t. While he does go out with a bang in Mr. Bean’s Holiday, something tells me that we are going to be begging for Bean’s next adventure again, and it will just be a matter of time until we do. And it is just a matter of time until I put out my four bucks (yes, I paid four bucks today just to see this movie) to watch it happen again. I doubt that the Bean character will be over after this, because he said the same thing during the first film. Let’s make one more, Atkinson.

You may be saying that I’m being nice to this film because I’m a fan of “Mr. Bean,” but I’m really not. Actually, the film is full of plotholes and goofs, but I’m not one to care about them. I’m just in it for three things: whether or not I liked it, the experience, and its cinematic value. And because both two reasonings are very good, the last reason isn’t. Fact is that Mr. Bean’s Holiday really isn’t for everyone, because you could tell that this was made for his fans. And because I was one of these fans of the Mr. Bean show and movie, I liked it. It ain’t perfect, but I’m afraid it’s not supposed to be either.

*** out of ****

11 Comments »

  1. i think your review is longer than the script.

    Comment by mo — August 27, 2007 @ 12:03 am

  2. LOL. I knew this was you at the first “fuck”

    Comment by LaRae Meadows — August 27, 2007 @ 1:27 am

  3. Oy, I’m approaching a new method, where I actually write everything that goes through my head during the movie on a notebook. Sure it’s for losers, but god does it make it easier on me.

    And did you honestly think I could go through a review without saying at least one fuck? I mean, going through a review without saying fuck is like Lindsay Lohan going through one day wearing panties.

    Comment by Tony DeFrancisco — August 27, 2007 @ 1:59 am

  4. Actually there’s 4 fucks in the review. Which is fine for a decent review. ;)

    I’m looking forward to seeing this movie; I always like Mr. Bean, and if it’s about as good as the first Bean movie and Johnny English, then I’m sure it’ll be fine. :)

    Comment by RagingR2 — August 27, 2007 @ 7:45 am

  5. Im not sure if you ever read one of my negative reviews. They contain about twenty to thirty more.

    Comment by Tony DeFrancisco — August 27, 2007 @ 11:40 am

  6. wow! only 4 fucks! a new record. your review is too god damn long!!! lol it took me 10 god damn minutes to read. shorten it up, k?? for those of us that don’t want to waste hours of our nights reading novels written by Tony DeFrancisco. holy shit, dude. lol. Nice review, though. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

    negative reviews >>>> Ex: I Now Pronoune You Chuck and Larry???

    Comment by RWJ — August 27, 2007 @ 5:08 pm

  7. I’m only glad there’s still people out there who will bother to write a decent review.
    For me it’s also just the fun of reading a well written piece. I mean; if it’s just for getting info about the movie I could check Imdb and the trailer too and get an idea myself… for as much as that is even necessary with a Bean movie of course. ;)

    Comment by RagingR2 — August 27, 2007 @ 6:25 pm

  8. Still, for me a decent review is 1000 words or less. Anything over 1000 is too long!!!! lol. he writes good reviews, though, so I can put up with it.

    Comment by RWJ — August 28, 2007 @ 10:57 am

  9. Well when you have four words that are fuck, you need to do a lot more with it. And in all it was about 1200 words. I dont think thats too bad. Im not writing for a magazine where there is a word limit, am I?

    Comment by Tony DeFrancisco — August 28, 2007 @ 7:19 pm

  10. hey, man. Fuck you! keep you sarcasm to yourself! lol

    Comment by RWJ — August 31, 2007 @ 9:39 am

  11. I love this review!!!

    Comment by Jerry — September 1, 2007 @ 2:37 pm

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