Mr. Bean's Holiday is a 2007 British comedy film based on the television series Mr. Bean. It is the second Mr. Bean film in the franchise, after Bean (1997).
| Mr. Bean's Holiday | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Waiter: "You speak very good French, sir."
Mr. Bean: "Gracias!" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Plot
Mr. Bean wins a holiday in France and sets out on his journey. Once there, he unknowingly separates a father-son duo and then decides to reunite them.
Why It Went On Holiday
- The movie has a much better grasp on the source material than the previous film (despite that one also being good), as Mr. Bean rarely speaks here, much like in the TV series.
- Much like the TV series, the film's gags are cleverly written and very funny to the point of them working very well, with some of them being reminiscent of famous French director and mime Jacques Tati.
- While the first film's humor was edgier and more family-unfriendlier (to the point of the film getting a PG-13 rating) than in the TV series, the humor here is toned down and reverted back to the humor style of the TV series, up to the point of getting a family-friendlier G-rating.
- Rowan Atkinson's performance as the title character is still as great as in the TV series; same goes for Willem Dafoe as the narcissistic filmmaker Carson Clay and Emma de Caunes as Sabine, the French actress whom Bean befriends.
- Only five examples of famously hilarious scenes include:
- The famous "O mio babbino caro" dance scene involving Mr. Bean and Stepan.
- The running gag involving Bean calling random numbers to find Stepan's father.
- The just-as-famous scene where Bean chases a chicken on a truck via bicycle in order to retrieve his bus ticket.
- Bean horsing around on a film set whilst dressed up as a Nazi soldier.
- Bean attempting to hitchhike an elderly man's VeloSolex scooter to Cannes, only for his weight to make it harder for the bike to transport both him and the driver. When the driver gets off to fix the bike, Mr. Bean uses this as an opportunity to hijack it, but fails miserably.
- Top-notch direction by Steve Bendelack of The League of Gentlemen fame.
- Really great and uplifting soundtrack, especially Matt Willis' cover of Crash that plays during the scene where Bean bikes to retrieve his bus ticket from a chicken as previously mentioned.
- The bond with Bean and Stepan is really heartwarming and sweet from start to finish.
- Sabine is a very nice, kind and pretty person to look at. The same goes for her own Mini, which is almost identical to Mr. Bean's own. In fact, she could serve as a potential new love interest for Mr. Bean after his previous love interest, Irma Gobb, dumped him.
- The musical score is just as amazing, triumphant and uplifting, thanks to Mr. Bean composer Howard Goodall returning to compose it.
- The ending is very heartwarming and concludes the film on a touching and satisfying note thanks to the main characters finally getting what they've desired: Mr. Bean finally arriving at the Cannes beach, Stepan being reunited with his parents, Sabine becoming a more famous actress and Carson Clay's film Playback Time getting a standing ovation.
- Overall, the film serves as a perfect send-off to Mr. Bean, despite him reappearing years later.
Bad Qualities
- While perfect for the most part, some scenes are a bit inappropriate for a G-rated film, such as the infamous scene where a man commits suicide by jumping off a bridge (though no blood or gore is shown) after thinking that his girlfriend dumped him over the phone (when it was actually Bean calling him in order to check if he is Stepan's father) and the scene where a Nazi attack on an unsuspecting French village is revealed to be part of a film production. Fortunately these scenes were cut in the UK.
- There are also some mean-spirited moments, such as Bean separating Stepan from his father and Stepan making Bean miss his train by getting hold of his video camera as revenge, as well as Carson Clay removing Sabine's scenes from his movie out of spite (though this was immediately resolved by Bean).
- Mr. Bean's companion, Teddy, doesn't appear at all in the film.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, holding a 52% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a critics consensus that reads: "Mr. Bean's Holiday means well, but good intentions can't withstand the 90 minutes of monotonous slapstick and tired, obvious gags." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 56 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Despite the mixed reviews, it is praised by Mr. Bean fans and audiences for being a more faithful adaptation to the series.
Trivia
- It spawned the "If You Know What I Mean" meme.
- Lily Atkinson, Rowan Atkinson's daughter, makes a cameo in the opening scene as "Lily in the Stereo".
- The original idea for the film involved Mr. Bean going to Australia instead of France.
- Besides that, the working titles for the film were Bean 2 and French Bean.
- Mel Gibson was considered for the role of Carson Clay.
- Other actresses were considered for the role of Sabine before Emma de Caunes got the role.
- The title is a reference to the 1953 French comedy film Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Monsieur Hulot's Holiday); Rowan Atkinson previously cited Hulot as an influence for Mr. Bean.
- Originally, Simon McBurney was set to write the film's script, but Rowan Atkinson stated that he was writing himself alongside Mr. Bean co-creator Richard Curtis; the final screenplay was instead written by Hamish McColl and Robin Driscoll (also a writer on the TV series), while McBurney instead penned the story of the film and served as one of the film's executive producers alongside Curtis.
- While filming the scene where Mr. Bean, Stepan and Sabine arrive at the Cannes Film Festival, the people in the crowd would call out Emma de Caunes' real name unaware that the actress was filming a Mr. Bean film and wasn't actually attending the film festival as herself, while Rowan Atkinson was doubled by an unknown actress for the scene.
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