Mr. Bean's Holiday (Widescreen Edition)
by Steve Bendelack
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Lily Atkinson, Preston Nyman, Rowan Atkinson, Steve Pemberton, Willem DafoeDirector: Steve Bendelack
Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
Writer: Rowan Atkinson
Producer: Caroline Hewitt
Producer: Debra Hayward
Writer: Hamish McColl
Writer: Richard Curtis
Writer: Robin Driscoll
Writer: Simon McBurney
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-27
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Mr. Bean's Holiday (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: A Nice Little Serving of Bean
Summary: 5 Stars
Whether or not you find this DVD hilarious or as thrilling as watching paint dry rather depends on how much a fan you are of Rowan Atkinson, the 1980s's British answer to Jerry Lewis. If you care about as much for either one as you would for having root-canal dentistry performed with a jack-hammer, then you can skip this DVD entirely, and the rest of the review too. Although Mr. Bean, the near-to-silent, endlessly inventive, rubber-faced (and apparently rubber-limbed) every-schlub is a little quieter than Jerry Lewis, he is just as comically accident-prone.
After all, who else on earth could find himself with his foot caught on a tall clothing rack, above his head... on a French TV production set... while costumed as a WWII German soldier... because he was practicing a really, really enthusiastic goose-step... after being shanghaied as an extra. The film involved is a commercial for yogurt, by the way. What the logic is in that, I have no idea, although Mr. Bean subsequently manages to blow up the director.
The plot, such as it exists is gossamer thin, and in places reminiscent of the classic Mr. Hulot's Holiday, being almost entirely composed of sight gags and gentle pratfalls. Mr. Bean wins a charity raffle first prize; a camcorder and an all expense paid trip to the French Riviera. He gets as far as Paris before the inevitable cascade of misfortune begins. In short order and in no particular order he manages to get his tie caught in a vending machine, fill an expensive handbag with raw oysters and causes a visiting Russian filmmaker to miss the train to Cannes. He also looses his bus ticket to a chicken, after miming a performance of "O Mio Bambino Caro" in a French open-air market in concert with the young son of the aforementioned Russian filmmaker, and has his bicycle run over by a tank He does eventually manage to reach Cannes and the seaside that he has been dreaming of while his home movies of the trip win a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival ... don't ask me to explain how that happened, but be assured there is some gentle fun to be had in skewering self-indulgent movie directors. Don't miss Willem Dafoe's brief turn as an auteur filmmaker/movie star with a hilariously awful but artistic movie. Whatever else can be said about Willem Dafoe, he does have enough confidence to parody himself. And the locations, especially those shot in and around the South of France are beautiful, as gorgeous as an expensive coffee-table book.
Overall, Mr. Bean's Holiday is a gentle, old-fashioned comedy - the kind of family friendly comedy that is hardly ever made any more; it can hardly be more unlike something like "Borat" and still be on the same planet. Some bits that are funnier that others, but there is nothing mean, foul-mouthed or vulgar about "Mr. Bean".It will even bear watching over and over again. Extras include more than twenty minutes of scenes that were omitted from the finished film, and three aptly titled features: "French Beans", which followed some of the more elaborate set-pieces filmed in the Luberon locations, "Beans in Cannes", explained how the crew managed to film on location during the international film festival, and "The Human Bean" featured brief interviews and reminiscences with other cast members.
Summary of Mr. Bean's Holiday (Widescreen Edition)
Rowan Atkinson (Bean, Love Actually, Johnny English) returns to his iconic role as the comical and endearing Mr. Bean in this outrageous comedy adventure! Mr. Bean (Atkinson) can't believe his luck when he wins a camcorder and an all-expense-paid vacatioWelcome back, Mr. Bean! After a too-long hiatus, it's a breath of fresh air to see you out and about, innocent as ever, unwitting in the havoc you wreak and clueless in the chaos you cause. In Mr. Bean's Holiday (the title echoes Jacques Tati's breezy 1953 classic Mr. Hulot's Holiday), the resourceful man-child Bean (Rowan Atkinson) wins a church raffle that packs him off to the beaches of the south of France. But getting there is all the funny, as he is detoured by one mishap after another. En route, he comes to the "aid" of a Cannes Film Festival judge's young son, who is separated (no thanks to Bean) from his father at the train station. Bean also stumbles upon a commercial shoot directed by a stereotypical egomaniacal American filmmaker (Willem Dafoe), and crosses paths with an aspiring actress (a charming Emma de Caunes) also on her way to Cannes. Mr. Bean's Holiday, an upgrade over the 1997 feature Bean, was a box-office smash around the world, but in the States, not so much. Here, the shock gag has replaced the sight gag, and this G-rated Holiday might be considered by more jaded viewers as out of step with contemporary tastes (unlike Borat, there is not a mean-spirited bone in Bean's gangly, malleable body). But in the classic tradition of the silent-movie clowns, Bean's visual comedy is universal and requires little translation (there are limited subtitles in this film). Younger children will find a kindred spirit in Bean, who exists in some kind of state of grace, whether trying to digest a disgusting seafood dinner or hilariously lip-syncing to an opera in a public square. --Donald Liebenson
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