MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY - HD DVD review

Rowan Atkinson first brought the popularity of his British television show "Mr. Bean" to American audiences with the 1997 film "Bean." "Mr. Bean's Holiday" is the sequel to the first picture and arrives a decade later. The film, which reaches a broad audience, grossed over two hundred million dollars worldwide and proved that there was still an audience for Atkinson's brand of humor nearly ten years after he took a long sabbatical from the character. Although the film found box office success, Rowan Atkinson has stated that "Mr. Bean's Holiday" is the final bow for the character. With its G rating, the film was not something I terribly found interesting. However, my eleven year old nephew Austin considered it one of the finest films he has seen in 2007.

In this sequel, Mr. Bean (Atkinson) arrives in his familiar Mini Cooper to a church raffle. After thinking his winning ticket of 919 was a losing ticket of 616, Bean realizes he has won a vacation to the Cannes film festival and its rich beaches. He has also won a Sony Video Camera and some money to help finance his trip. Not having much intelligence, but a solid desire to see the beach, Bean sets off on a series of misadventures and decides to catalogue his adventure with his newly won hand camera. When he first arrives in France, Bean takes the wrong taxi cab and finds himself far away from the train station he had hoped to arrive at. He then walks a long journey in a very straight line to reach the train station, but finds himself with some time to spare and ends up in a French restaurant where he accidentally orders a seafood platter. The eating of the platter proves too much for Bean and he leaves the restaurant in a hurry.

His desire to film his vacation to the beach of Cannes finds Bean asking a Russian gentleman Emil Dachevsky (Karel Roden) to videotape Bean boarding the train to Cannes. Bean is dissatisfied with the shots and has Emil try a number of times. This results in Emil missing the train, but Bean making the final boarding call. Unfortunately, Emil's son Stepan (Max Baldry) is on the train and finds himself separated from his ‘Papa' and Emil tells Stepan to get off at the next stop. Bean tries to make nice with the young boy for causing his father to miss the train, but Stepan takes his camera and Bean ends up getting off at the next stop to regain his camcorder. He leaves his luggage on the train and is unable to get back on the train. When the next train passes, Emil is showing a sign with a phone number to call. Misfortune strikes again as Emil had the final two numbers covered up. Bean writes down all one hundred possible combinations of the phone number and begins dialing them to contact Emil for Stepan.

The film then becomes a road movie between Bean and Stepan as they try to find transportation to Cannes or more coinage to try and call more of the hundred numbers and locate the boy's father. After a bus mishap, Bean and Stepan are separated. During this time, Bean loses his wallet and train ticket. He is left with only the camera and his passport. Along the way they also make a mess of a commercial being filmed by director Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe). Bean becomes an extra and his quickly fired for his antics involving the camera. This situation does introduce Mr. Bean to the pretty young French actress Sabine (Emma de Caunes). Some time after being fired from the shoot, Bean is found hitchhiking by Sabine and they set off together to reach Cannes. Bean is more enamored by the Mini than by the gorgeous young woman.

Bean and Stepan are eventually reunited, but the entire French police are after them because they believe Bean has kidnapped Stepan. It is realized that Emil is a film judge for the Cannes Film Festival and Sabine is on her way to the premiere of a Carson Clay film where she had a bit part. Sabine agrees to take Bean to Cannes, but will reunite Stepan with her father. At the premiere, Bean is chased by security, but manages to reunite the boy and his father. He also destroys Clay's boring picture, but the audience appreciates and applauds the footage from Bean's hand camera. The film ends with Bean finding his beach, Stepan finding his father and Clay finding a new film technique.

I personally find Rowan Atkinson's physical humor tiring after a while. The actor barely has a speaking part and any semblance of dialogue is replaced with undecipherable grunts and under-breath mutterings that barely form sentences. "Mr. Bean's Holiday" is entirely a physical comedy film and the actor's rubbery face and ability to kick very high has a way of delighting younger audiences, but I must reiterate that it wore quickly for this viewer. Atkinson certainly has a talent with using his body and face to be silly and humorous. He has a methodology all his own that is signature to the character. Under the actor's performance, Bean is perhaps the biggest moron to ever grace the big screen. Credit surely must be given to the intelligent Atkinson for bringing such an imbecilic person to life. Perhaps my gripe with the film is that a character as unintelligent and completely unable to hold even the slightest conversation just isn't that terribly funny to somebody that grew up watching old "Three Stooges" shows.

They story does have some merit. The British funnyman is injected into the French culture and a couple of the show's funnier moments deals with Bean's alien adventure across a nation where they aren't always fond of Englishmen. Many scenes feature Bean in wide open spaces where the actor's physical blend of comedy must stand on its own and those that are fond of the Bean character are sure to be delighted by this film's showcasing of the funnyman. Bean is a fish out of water no matter where the character travels, but he is furthest out of his element in the foreign land just across the English channel. The road tale told between Bean and the more intelligent and mature Stepan is the strongest part of the story, but it is cut short to allow Bean to re-enter the French cities and countryside to do his own thing. When Sabine enters the fray, the Stepan character is nearly forgotten.

The supporting cast of "Mr. Bean's Holiday" do a commendable job of delivering dialogue and playing it straight to Atkinson's comedy routine. Willem Dafoe is a benefit to any film he is involved with, save "Speed 2: Cruise Control." He adds a respectable element to the film and is very believable as a conceited filmmaker. Young Max Baldry does a great job as Stepan in the film. It is never easy for child actors, but I can imagine he had a difficult time of keeping a straight face when working with Atkinson. Baldry manages a straight face during the entire film and is a likeable young man onscreen. My favorite member of the supporting cast was Emma de Caunes. The French actress is a lovely lady and the veteran French actress handles herself with poise during the hilarity that surrounds her. She exudes a flirting sexuality that never feels wrongly placed in the seat beside Atkinson as they travel across France in a Mini. Although I did not particularly enjoy the humor of the film, there is no denying that it is a well-acted picture.

The character Bean doesn't understand the language of the country he finds himself in. This does offer some comfort with the character's complete lack of lines. However, when Bean and Sabine converse during the film's later scenes, Bean still ignores the simple fact that he must be able to speak English. Had Bean been given a few lines of witty dialogue, I would have stomached the film quite easily, but I just could not get past the childish verbal quirks of the film's main character. Watching Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean is liking watching a four year old in a suit and a man's body. When Bean is feasting on seafood, I found myself laughing for a few brief moments and found this scene to be the funniest moment of the picture. Just the thought of putting oysters in somebody's purse is just wrong enough to incite laughter.

Although I wasn't overly fond of the picture as one complete body of work, there is no denying that it doesn't have a few very nicely done moments for just about anybody. Atkinson is a very talented physical comedian and part of his DNA must include rubber. At fifty two years old, Atkinson manages to somehow keep up with the pace of the film and perform some sight gags that would challenge actors twenty years his junior. The supporting cast is solid as well with Dafoe, Baldry and de Caunes all performing admirably in the face of a goof. The story wasn't all that bad, but the overly adolescent humor represented by the main character and his five year-old intellect is just too much for me to easily swallow. The English love tea and they love Bean. Unfortunately, Bean is just not my cup of tea.

Video:

The HD-DVD side of "Mr. Bean's Holiday" finds the 1.85:1 aspect film mastered with the VC-1 codec and looking both detailed and colorful on HD-DVD. Universal has done a very good job with their ‘bigger' titles and this is another stellar effort from the studio. Detail stood out from the very beginning in the film. Individual grains of macadam can be counted. The fibers of Bean's jacket are quite visible and the individual stubble hairs on Atkinson's chin pepper the screen. The French countryside, the beaches of Cannes and the Parisian locations all look magnificent on HD-DVD. The colors hold up quite nicely. The sky is a lovely hue of blue. The green grass brings the countryside to life and the beach looked amazingly warm and refreshing. The transfer is clean and I could not recall seeing a singular flaw in either the digital mastering or as a result of the source materials. Whether or not you like Bean's style of humor, there is no denying the fact that this is a very good looking HD-DVD transfer and it definitely outmatches the DVD contained on the flip side.

Sound:

"Mr. Bean's Holiday" is given the royal treatment on HD-DVD with an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. The French are supported with a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix, and an accompanying English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track is also provided. Similar support is given to the DVD flipside. Sound is good, but as is the case with most comedies, it is nothing to get overly excited about. The busy streets of Paris sounds pretty good and the moments where a train crosses the screen are tame, yet workable. The yogurt commercial that is complete with tanks and explosions is the film's audible focal point and these scenes are quality. A large number of cell phones also ring during the film and at least once I felt like reaching for my own phone. This is not the most enveloping mix you will ever experience, but there is enough ambient information in the rear surrounds to make "Mr. Bean's Holiday" and above average sounding comedy. Dialogue is clear and discernable for everybody not named Rowan Atkinson, but Bean's murmurings come across as well as can be expected.

Extras:

"Mr. Bean's Holiday" is presented as an HD-DVD/DVD combo release from Universal. The studio has provided an hour's worth of bonus features. Among the extra materials supplied with the HD-DVD release of "Mr. Bean's Holiday" are seventeen Deleted Scenes (23:54). These pieces of excised material run the gamut of the entire film and feature much of the same physical humor and nearly undecipherable grunts from Rowan Atkinson of the feature film. The next bit, French Beans (11:24) is a short making of feature that discusses the French location and choices made in this sequel. Bean in Cannes (5:48) is the second part of the making-of-feature and looks at the inclusion of the Cannes Film Festival and Willem Dafoe. The Human Bean (6:12) looks at Rowan Atkinson, the actor. Everybody has very nice things to say about the actor and all-in-all, the three part making-of feature is decent enough. Universal's familiar Web Enabled features are also included. This currently was reserved to four promotional trailers from the studio for "VeggieTales," "Evan Almighty," "The Land Before Time" and an HD-DVD promotion.

Closing Comments:

Aside from a few scenes, I was not enthralled by "Mr. Bean's Holiday." There have been times when I've enjoyed Rowan Atkinson as "Mr. Bean," but as I've gotten older, I am less appreciative of his dry British humor intertwined with potent physical comedy. The boyish demeanor of the character is a pill that is just too hard to swallow. On counterpoint, my nephew Austin absolutely loves Bean and has already watched the HD-DVD twice. He even sat through all of the bonus materials with delight. There are films that speak to an audience and "Mr. Bean's Holiday" has an audience to speak to. Unfortunately, that audience does not include me. The HD-DVD has very strong video that ranks among the better releases from Universal. The sound quality is good, but hindered by the fact it is a comedy. The web features are forgettable, but the rest of the supplements are decent enough for fans. My opinion is that "Mr. Bean's Holiday" is a film for fans of the character. Others may want to allow Bean to follow his straight line to Cannes and watch something else. This just wasn't a film for me.