Release Date: 22 March 2007

Synopsis :

In BEAN II, Mr. Bean is heading to the south of France for a holiday in the sun. His voyage from London to the Riviera soon descends into chaos as he inadvertently creates havoc wherever he goes, culminating in a riotous screening of his own video diary at the Cannes Film Festival.

Movie Review:

Admit it: you must have at least laughed at Mr. Bean’s silly antics once. All his ridiculously inane and juvenile jokes, all his slapstick misadventures, all his exaggerated facial expressions – you must be a scrooge if you hadn’t even broken into a slight chuckle.

So it is only natural that you won’t think much of Mr. Bean’s creator Rowan Atkinson.

To our surprise, the 52-year-old English actor has a master’s degree from Oxford Queen’s College. How in the world could someone with an academic history like this play someone like Mr. Bean for over 15 years?

In his latest (and some say last) outing, Mr. Bean goes to France and well, that is about it for the plot.

Like the television series, this 90-minute movie focuses on the embarrassing and comedic situations the cloaked one perpetually gets into. Restaurant jokes, mistaken identities and miscommunication gags are what you can expect from this second Bean feature film.

Unlike the first movie Bean (1997) directed by Mel Smith, this one ditches any attempt to build up a story. From the moment Mr. Bean leaves on the train to Cannes (he wants to go to the beaches, not the film festival), it is clear that audiences are in for, let’s face it, three episodes of the television show.

Not that there is anything wrong with this, because the good-natured movie did make us laugh out loud quite a bit. There are even some creative (!) moments where high-brow art-house movies screened at the Cannes festival are spoofed. Kudos to English director Steve Bendeleck, who tackled this part of the movie with a genuinely humorous approach.

There are also some product placements (done quite tastefully, thank god) and creative use of a consumer home video camera which proves to be nice touches of creativity to an otherwise formulated flick.

Versatile actor Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, Inside Man) and fresh-faced French actress Emma de Caunes add flavour to this one-man-show movie starring Atkinson as the resident goof.

Mr. Bean’s retarded facial expressions, signature grunts and incomprehensible words are what fans (you know who you are) of the television series will enjoy. To the others, these may just be irritatingly frustrating to watch and stomach.

But come on, you pay for a cinema ticket to this movie, and you are expecting serious drama?

If the large crowd who watched this movie with us could laugh so heartily throughout its entire runtime, we gather that they enjoyed the countless antics provided by this popular character that has lasted for more than a decade.

So who are we to criticize this pleasantly agreeable flick?

Movie Rating:

(Expect the usual absurd antics from Mr. Bean in this movie, which can actually be an enjoyable ride if you are in the right mood)

Review by John Li