Bean
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 "Be afraid. Be very afraid. Mr. Bean has a passport."
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Bean (also known as Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie or Bean: The Movie) is a 1997 comedy film based on the British television series Mr. Bean. Directed by Mel Smith and written by Robin Driscoll and Richard Curtis (both writers for the TV series), the film stars Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean, Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Sandra Oh and Burt Reynolds. A standalone sequel, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was later released in 2007.
Plot
Mr. Bean is a destructively clumsy, yet well-meaning guard at the Royal National Gallery in London who always shows up to work late, constantly sleeps on the job and has no manners. Because of this, the entire board wishes to fire him. When the gallery's chairman vetoes Bean's firing, the board decides to send him to a Los Angeles art gallery under false credentials instead, where he is ordered to present "Whistler's Mother". When Bean arrives, his chaos-causing ways are as sharp as ever and curator David Langley has the unenviable task of keeping Bean in line.
Why It Fixed Whistler's Mother
- The film is faithful to the original series by reusing some of the sketches in the series as inspiration for the film's scenes, such as when Mr. Bean accidentally gets his head stuck in a turkey like in the episode "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean". In addition, several scenes in the film are based on elements from the TV series without being rehashes of them.
- It is really nice to see Mr. Bean head to the United States for a change.
- Same goes for him meeting and befriending an American suburban family for the first time.
- Much like the TV series, there are plenty of funny moments from start to finish, such as the scene where Bean ruins "Whistler's Mother" by accident after sneezing on it, David Langley freaking out upon realizing Bean ruined the painting (see below), Bean sneaking back into the gallery to replace the original "Whistler's Mother" with a poster, and so on.
- Some of the riskier moments work, such as Bean giving the middle finger to everybody after mistaking it for a friendly greeting.
- Much like in the TV series, Mr. Bean remains a likeable and funny character (despite some of his shenanigans) throughout the entire movie.
- David Langley is a very entertaining and funny character like Bean himself, particularly in the famous scene where he freaks out over seeing that Bean ruined "Whistler's Mother".
- Howard Goodall's musical score is amazing much like in the original series. The theme song for the movie, titled "Mad Pianos" is especially amazing.
- The idea of Bean ruining "Whistler's Mother" and replacing it with a poster is pretty original and funny.
- Much like the TV series, Rowan Atkinson's performance as the titular character is entertaining, as is Peter MacNicol as David Langley.
- Great soundtrack like "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys (which plays in the scene where Bean goes to a theme park), "I Love L.A." by Randy Newman (which plays in the final scenes) and "Picture of You" by Boyzone (which plays in the credits).
- Good Moral: When Mr. Bean delivers his speech, he reminds everybody how important family is, and how you should stick by them unconditionally.
- The scene itself is really good, as you're not used to hearing Mr. Bean talk full sentences. This is why it's humorous to watch him struggle through one, but triumphant when he gets a standing ovation.
Bad Qualities
- The film features much more dialogue than in the TV series, which is against the Mr. Bean formula (though Mr. Bean does talk in the TV series, those were very few and far between). Mr. Bean himself is mostly silent, however.
- Besides that, the humor has also become a lot less family-friendly than in the TV series, which caused the film to obtain a PG-13 rating in order to appeal to an American audience. The ending scene where Bean gives the middle finger to everyone he passes by (including David's family) after mistaking it for a friendly greeting is an example of this. This was a pretty funny scene, however.
- The film boils down to 90 minutes with some filler moments (with practically nothing happening in the film), with the simulation ride scene and the hospital operating room scene being examples.
- There was a scene that involved Bean driving his famous Mini through Harrods' department store; although it was filmed, it wasn't included in the final cut.
- The barf bag scene is pretty disgusting.
- Some unlikeable characters:
- David's family (except his son), especially his wife Alison, is somewhat unlikable. Alison leaves David and takes the family to her mother's house due to Bean being in the house, despite not doing too much wrong (except breaking an heirloom). Hinting she may have a prejudice against British people (or against foreign people in general).
- The Chairman of the Royal National Gallery in London is unlikable, as not only he refused to fire Mr. Bean (despite Mr. Bean’s antics), but also threatened to give Charles and the other Board members his resignation if they went anywhere near Mr. Bean, despite Charles and the rest of the board being in the right to fire Mr. Bean.
- Minor product placement for M&M's, Sony and Barbie.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 43% based on 35 reviews with an average rating of 6.5/10 on IMDB, based on 111,000 ratings. The site's critical consensus reads: "Bean boasts a terrifically talented physical comedian in the title role, but his constant mugging and silly slapstick quickly wear thin." On Metacritic the film holds a score of 52 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film has been criticized by Mr. Bean fans and audiences for Americanizing Mr. Bean, by featuring more dialogue than in the TV series.
Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four; while he thought the film had "many moments that are very funny," he criticized the film's 90 minute running time, which he felt it made the film too long; he stated that "At an hour, Bean would have been nonstop laughs. [But] Then they added 30 minutes of stops."
Trivia
- Burt Reynolds was cast in the role of Newton after he admitted he was a fan of the TV series.
- On that topic, Steve Martin, another fan of the series, was considered for the role of David Langley.
- In the original script, there was a character called Annie, who was a nice but not particularly bright girl who worked at the museum. She was deleted from the script due to the fact that she has nothing to do in the film.
- It was rumored that the film was originally going to end with an earthquake in Los Angeles, to which the glass frame surrounding "Whistler's Mother" shattered and revealed the "Whistler's Mother" there to be the fake poster instead of the original.