Mr. Bean’s Holiday

While in London, I managed to catch a couple of episodes for a show called “Mr. Bean” during the early hours of the day. To be honest, it wasn’t anything close to as good as “The Benny Hill Show” or “Coupling,” but still entertaining nonetheless (It might’ve been the time the show aired or my heavy drinking). Now, nothing springs to mind when I tell you about a couple of years later about Mr. Bean’s new movie, The Premiere Center. But hey, it can’t be that awful right? After all, it is Mr. Bean we are talking about. But after watching, Mr. Bean’s Holiday my answer would be yes, I regret my words. Yes, it would indeed be worse. For a descriptive insight into my words, read below.

Rowan Atkinson is back once again in his already-known role of Mr. Bean which is a character of a man who is mischievous and is a silent fool and has to communicate through making noise, mumbling, and acting out. He always winds up in some unusual situations the same way it was in those episodes I watched. In Mr. Bean’s Holiday, Bean gets a ticket that allows him to enjoy a trip to the south of France. Along the way, he starts recording a video journal that reflects his friendship with a young Spanish boy and how he messes around France trying to reach his goal. While traveling he rolls into a top-notch French eatery, interrupts a movie shoot, amusingly begs for cash, or better yet when he just showed up at the movie premiere for one of many examples. And yes all of this is perpetrated by the language barrier. How surprising!

And this is my biggest grievance concerning this film. It was simply nonsensical. Every scene in this movie was so contrived, as if the movie aimed to show us, how staggeringly idiotic this man is. Of which the restaurant scene is a prime example.

It’s no surprise that he messes up his food order, he doesn’t speak the language and has no idea how to speak French either. That also makes it hard to understand, if he dislikes crawfish and live oysters, why would he bother going through the motions of faking the eating of these and then tossing the actual sea creatures into a ladies’ purse? Why would he want to do that? Even admitting that the guy is somehow mentally disabled at least in part, there is a point when you just have to admit that is pathetic, particularly with the fact that this kind of thing happens over and over again and again.

No matter, there is still some hope for you dear child as Willem Dafoe has a very limited role as Carson Clay who is a snobbish actor in Hollywood. Watching him watching his movie Playback Time, where he plays the role of the man who goes to war only to find a paralyzed woman and is too full of himself to remember that he is an actor, is comical, to say the least. Even in the audience, people are half asleep. It is even more of a feat that Rowan Atkinson even in today’s age in his fifties is still able to defy the laws of physics. I swear Jerry Lewis left this sort of stuff when he was forty which is probably why he is blowing the trumpets for the A-list stars now. Whatever the case, it’s good he can still do it, but I think it’d be better if, from now on, he chose to not do it anymore.

If I were to wrap up my thoughts on Mr. Bean’s Holiday I would say it is a show for Europeans. There is a reason why Jerry Lewis shifted there, this is because they appreciate this kind of comedy (though in this case, I guess only some). For us Americans however there are only a small handful; who enjoy this, let alone understand it and sadly my suspicions are after waiting around 30 years for this movie I’m quite certain a much more suitable Euro import would come around.

Watch “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” For Free on Gomovies.