Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

6/10

Starring

Rowan Atkinson

Emma de Caunes

Max Baldry

Willem Dafoe

Directed by Steve Benedelack

Mr. Bean’s Holiday is a standalone sequel to the 1997 movie Mr.Bean. Done ten years after the release of the first film, the producers got it right this time. It is not that the first Bean movie was not funny, but the movie felt too long. The first movie suffered from fatigue as it seems the writers ran out of ideas of what else they can do and just kept doing slapstick comedy back to back for ninety minutes. That said, the first movie was a financial success.

This movie (also a financial success) was more like it. Instead of taking Bean to America like they did in the first movie which stole away all the British comedic fun, here the movie was shot in Europe. Mr. Bean was on a holiday in France. I guess some comedy are best suited to happen in an English/European setting than in America.

Like in the first movie all the guys involved in the creation of Mr. Bean were here in the production, the story, writing and screenplay. With Atkinson back to play the role of Bean.

What I like most about the movie is the way the plot plays out, we have three things happening and three people traveling together all being the lead in the the three things.

Here is how they all tie up, first we have Mr. Bean who won a holiday by train to Cannes, a video camera, and €200 spending money. Second, we have Stepan (Max Baldry) who Bean mistakenly kidnaps when he ask the boy’s father to film him doing some weird stuff with the train. Stepan was already on the train and because of Bean the father misses the train. So the father reports his child taken.

Bean feeling responsible decides to take the boy with him and reunite him with his father. But series of unfortunate events led to Bean losing the boy and finding himself hitchhiking where he is picked up by aspiring actress Sabine. Sabine is the the third person in this trio (Emma de Caunes) who is on her way to Cannes Film Festival where the film in which she makes her acting debut is to be presented. On their way to Cannes they find Stepan pick him up and all three go on the ride to Cannes. Where another set of mishaps happens and you have to see to know how everything ended up.

The movie is very funny and one of the best things in the end is seeing how the self obsessed film producer Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe) wanted to make a movie that focused solely on him. It was so funny to see it happen.

I will be watching this movie again later in the week, and in 2020 the comedy still holds up.