Mr. Bean’s Holiday

Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is supposed to be zany and unusual, and this movie is zany and unusual. As the movie begins, Bean is pulling up in front of a church and locking his car with a padlock. Inside the church they are having a raffle for a beach trip to Cannes, while the church roof leaks all around. The raffle is being held to help fix the roof. The parish priest calls the number 919, but Bean is disappointed because he has 616. Just as they are about to call another number, Bean realizes his mistake and turns his ticket upside down to reveal 919. Bean also wins a video camera.

Mr. Bean videotapes his entire travels. Most of the time, he acts like a child with a video camera and some of the scenes are just downright annoying. For the next hour and a half, Bean travels the countryside trying to get to his destination.

Mr. Bean is a British comedy that stars Rowan Atkinson as the zany, most of the time silent actor. He dresses odd, he makes odd faces, and he seems to not understand what is going on around him. This movie is a sequel. The first movie called “Bean” was released in 1997 and was rated PG-13. This movie carries a G-rating. However, don’t think that means anyone can see it. There are several scenes that bothered me. In one scene, Bean is driving and falling asleep at the wheel. He heats the cigarette lighter in the car and burns his finger to keep awake. In another scene, a man jumps off a bridge to kill himself, and Bean is responsible for this.

There are also plenty of moments where Bean does the wrong thing to others. He drops his coffee on a man’s laptop and then lets someone else take the blame. In a restaurant, Bean drops raw oysters in a woman’s purse and then runs out of the restaurant. He causes a traffic jam in the city. He asks a man to videotape him getting on the train and steps on his cup of coffee. Instead of showing remorse for this, he is annoyed with the man for leaving it there. He has the man retape the scene and this causes the man to miss getting on the train.

The man’s young son Stepan (Max Baldry) is already on the train. Bean then feels some responsibility in helping him get back to his father. There is a scene where Stepan gets off the train and is approached by a drunken man. Bean gets off the train to make sure he is okay.

Other Objectionable Content Includes: Two men fighting, a drunk man approaching a child at the train station, a scene with a tank and machine guns, Bean steals a bicycle, and a man is shown standing in front of a urinal. Stepan slaps Bean and this becomes a way of greeting elsewhere in the film. Bean dresses as a women and Stepan dresses as a young girl to avoid being found. Bean knocks out a security guard with his purse.

This movie is a perfect example as to how we should not live our lives. Bean is totally oblivious to anyone but himself. He has one destination and getting there is all that matters. We need to try to live our lives watching out for others. Being aware of others in our lives and choosing to do the right thing is far more important than our plans or destination. Bean is unaware of what is going on around him but this doesn’t prevent him from bad things. His actions were responsible for most of his mishaps.

If you are a Bean fan or enjoy mindless humor, I’m sure you will want to see this movie. There were some funny scenes, and at the end of the movie, there was some audience applause. However, this movie is just dumb. Some of the funny scenes from the previews were cut out of the movie, and most of the movie is pointless. However, one redeeming quality of the movie is that there is a loose plot of Bean trying to return the young boy to his father. Also, many of the characters throughout the movie reappear at various destinations along the way as Bean and everyone else converge on Cannes.

Violence: Minor / Profanity: None / Sex/Nudity: None

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• Young people
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