Movie Review: Mr. Bean’s Holiday

I’d like to invite everyone to come and watch Mr. Bean’s Holiday. It premieres today, May 30 2007 in the Philippines.

I was able to catch the first show of Mr. Bean’s Holiday. As I rarely do movie reviews, I’d like to mention that my motivations for doing so involve a fanatical attachment to Mr. Bean’s character as well as my “uncanny resemblance” to this stage persona when I feel like it.

This is perhaps one of the best examples of well-put product placements. Nokia is prevalent throughout the film as Bean and Stepan (Max Baldry) dial several numbers at three key points in the film with many people around the world answering. The signature Nokia ring tones are promiscuous. Bean also holds with him a Nokia 7370 (at least that is what it looks like). At one point in the film, Bean points to Sabine’s (Emma du Caunes) car tires and says in his signature voice the brand, “Dunlop.” Not to mention, throughout the movie, Bean carries with him a digital video recorder (I think its a Sony, but I could be wrong).

For those expecting a funnier and more engaging Bean compared to his first movie, you may be slightly disappointed. The movie takes the form of a road trip as Rowan Atkinson’s character, Mr. Bean, wins a vacation trip to the beach in Cannes. He encounters several adventures along the way and wrecks havoc to a movie set, allegedly kidnaps a a Cannes film festival critic and crosses with director Carson Clay, who is played by the Green Goblin himself, Willem Dafoe. Because Bean is constantly on the move, you do not feel the same character development which was very prevalent in the first movie where he is mistaken for a museum curator and lives with an American family. The pranks, slapstick, and embarrassments that make you cringe and laugh in every Bean movie aren’t as prevalent here as the first. But don’t get me wrong, it is still worth the laughs.