Movie Title: Mr. Bean’s Holiday
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (6/10)
Year: 2007
Mr. Bean’s Holiday official site: http://www.beansholiday.com/
A sequel to his first film titled “Bean” (1997), Rowan Atkinson is back to amaze us with his mime acts that never fails to create laughter. No kidding… after a great 10 years and Rowan is still looking same like before. Talk about being a famous comedian.
On the sad part, this movie is said to be the last Mr. Bean story. So I guess people will just have to make do with the Mr. Bean television series (I think I have seen endless times of reruns on the tv). Rite… what can one say, I think I saw the series like since I was a kid. But the amazing thing with me is, I won’t laugh no matter how I think his actions is funny. Everyone around me is laughing but I just sit there and continue watching with a emotionless face.
Having watch the first movie, I sorta think this show lacks of family and people bonding feel. Rather centred on Rowan Atkinson. Then again, it’s probably the very last time we will see him on the Bean movie so I think it is rather forgivable.
Spoiler begins here.
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Mr. Bean(Rowan Atkinson) is back… this time with more disaster coming along. The movie begins by showing Bean driving his signature yellow mini cooper and parked right in front of a church. When he got down from his car, he padlock his car with a classic door lock. Inside the church, there is a lucky draw going on for those who have help donate money to refurbish the church. The grand prize winner will get a vacation package to Cannes beach (travelling by train), a video camera and $200 spending money.
The lucky number is being drawn when Mr. Bean is walking in. The number called out for the grand prize is 919. Much to Bean’s disappointment, his number is 616 and so he threw the paper away. The paper lands on the kids train toy. As he walks by the train toy, he saw the number upside down showing the number 919 and won the grand prize.
The next thing we know, Bean is on the train heading to Paris.. right “France doesn’t stand a chance” against Bean. When bean arrive in Paris, he got down from the train and try to grab a cab to go to the next station, Gare de Lyon to take a train to Cannes. He goes over to a cab and tell the driver the location he would wanna go. He then turn around to pick up his luggage. While he is picking up his luggage, another man board the cab. A guy then ask the new cab to bring them to the Grande Arche. While the guy is calling his partner to board the cab, Bean get on board thinking it was the previous cab.
He sensed something is wrong when he arrived at the Grande Arche. He then tries to ask for directions, however due to language problem, Bean uses sign language trying to communicate to some passer by. None of them understand what he is trying to do. Bean then get to the nearest directory whereby he sets the direction he is heading towards and walking according to the compass direction in straight line.
He walk pass a garden, walking up and down from the benches, walking in the middle of the road which cause a major jam and potential accidents. Against all odds, Bean manage to get to the train station 5 minutes before it leaves. Thinking there are still some time, Bean decided to buy some food from the vending machine. He takes out money from his tie and place it in the vending machine. Not noticing he slipped his tie in the machine as well, he got himself stuck to the vending machine while his train departed.
He will have to wait for the next train which will arrive in an hour time. Feeling hungry, he headed to the restaurant in the train station for lunch. Not knowing what to order since it is all in French, he decides to follow on the waiter’s recommendation. He ordered a seafood platter, one of the restaurant’s famous delicacies. He is shocked to see a big plate filled with shaved ice. Fresh oysters and shrimp were seen resting on top of the ice.
The manager of the restaurant insisted that Bean try their delicacies. Bean pick up the oyster and gives it a try. However, he felt it was too slimy, raw and unpleasant. Sitting there wondering if he should continue eating, the manager is staring at him from far. He then pretends he is eating the oysters, in fact, he drops the oysters in to the napkin. Just as it was about to spill out, Bean manages to pout the oysters in to the handbag of the lady seating next to him.
Bean then continues to chew down the shrimps. It’s really funny seeing how he chow down the hard shell as well. While he is enjoying his shrimp, the lady tries to reach to her bag when her phone rings. It gave Bean a great shock. Fortunately, it was a miss call. Worried that the woman might spot the oysters, Bean quickly pays the bill and leave the place. While he takes the exit, the woman’s phone rings again. This time she reaches in to her bag and gave a big scream.
Mr. Bean then is taking some videos around. On the platform heading to Cannes, he bump in to a man who happens to be a Russian movie director, Emil Duchevsky (Karel Roden). Bean asked Emil to help him shoot a video of him walking towards the train. However there were many obstacles which include staff dragging lines of luggage in front of the video camera and Bean kicked on Emil’s coffee. After a few re-takes, Bean finally boards the train. However right after he board the train, the door closes, leaving Emil trapped outside. Emil is then separated from his son Stephan (Max Baldry). Emil then runs along the platform asking Stephan to get down on the next station to wait for him.
Bean then notices that Stephan is upset and alone. He then sat down right in front of Stephan trying to make him laugh by making funny faces. Stephan on the other hand doesn’t find it funny. Instead he finds it annoying and ended up giving Bean a slap in the face. Bean then moves away and fall asleep. When he wakes up, he saw Stephan getting off the train. He then sat on a bench waiting for his father to come find him. While waiting, a drunk man walk near Stephan. Worried about Stephan’s safety, Bean got down from the train and chase the drunk man away. When he board the train again, Stephan took Bean’s camera and start shooting at him. Bean then noticed that Stephan stole his video camera and tries to get it back. The train closes and leaves the moment he gets off.
Feeling guilty, Stephan returns the video camera. Stephan then tries to imitate Bean trying to cheer him up a little. The next train arrive. Stephan spotted Emil on the train, however the train is not stopping. Emil then holds a paper with his mobile phone number written on it. He then point and hinted to Stephan to call him when he reaches Cannes. Wondering what they should do, Bean got a brilliant idea and decided to shoot it down with his video camera.
He ran following Emil and tripped. They then replay the footage only to notice they got the numbers except the last 2 digit as Emil’s finger was covering them. Bean then list down 100 possibilities and they started to call the numbers one by one. They firstly called and a toddler was playing with the phone and ended up dropping the phone in a drink, they then called and this time the phone is ringing from a dead man’s pocket at the mortuary, the next man commits suicide (jumping from the bridge after the call) while the last one reaches to a cleaner who happens to clean Emil’s room.
When they saw the next train approaching, they quickly hop on. When the train is leaving only Bean notices his passport and money was left behind on the phone booth. Bean then asked Stephan to hide under the chair while he tries to hide in the toilet. Unfortunately, another guy was in the toilet. Bean would have to come out from the toilet. As he came out, he bumped into the ticket lady. Bean and Stephan was thrown off the train when they fail to show their tickets.
At the station, Stephan tries to ask a woman for money. Initially the woman tries to ignore him, Stephan then pretend to cry and the woman gave him some money to call his dad. Bean trying to mimic what Stephan did. However he fails terribly. Instead of getting money, he and Stephan was being chased out of the station.
They both then ran to the local market. Being hungry and tired, all they could do is just shoot picture of the nice foods. They then try to find ways to earn money to get food. Bean got an idea. Stephan distract the CD seller while Bean steals one of the speaker and place it on an empty ground. Bean then dance to the various music the CD seller plays in an attempt to earn money. Initially no one pays attention to them.
Suddenly the CD seller plays a classical orchestra music. Bean starts to do a mime scene. His actions manages to capture a large crowd. He then ask for Stephan’s assistance. Shy and thinking Bean is making a shame out of himself, Stephan initially refuse. After Bean pulled him out, Stephan pretend to be dead while Bean is carrying him. Their act manage to amuse the crowd and they gave them a lot of money.
Bean and Stephan then use the money to buy loads of food and bus tickets to Cannes. Stephan step up to the bus. Just as Bean is to board the bus, he clumsily drops the tickets. The sudden wind blows the ticket off the bus and lands on the ground where a group of chicken is grouped. One of the chicken is jumping around and the ticket got stuck at it’s feet. However, the owner took the chicken and lock it in a cage and drives away with it.
Bean then took a bicycle and tries to catch the owner. After chasing the owner for quite sometime, Bean is tired and manages to hold on to a car. When the car brake, it give Bean a huge momentum. With that, he manages to overtake a group of cyclist. On the other hand, Stephan got out from the bus since Bean is not back with the tickets. He then hitch hike with a group of band who is also heading to Cannes.
Back to Bean, he actually reaches to the famer’s car. However, the dog from the van barked at Bean and he is forced to backdown. Bean follows the van and finally spot the place they stopped. Bean then went in to the barn and saw and empty cage. He then open the door behind to check out the location of the chicken. To his surprised… there were thousands of chicken. Knowing he will never find the ticket, he decides to leave.
As he walks out, he saw his bicycle was crashed. From the footage of his video camera, his bicycle was crashed by a big tanker. Bean then continues his journey. He tries to walk along the road and hitch hike. As he waits at the side of the road, he saw a motorcyclist. After waiting for a long time, the motorcyclist still hasn’t reach. When it finally arrive, Bean was offered a ride. However, Bean decides to hijack the motorcycle and wants to leave without the cyclist when he is slow in departing. The speed of the motorbike is actually slower than the motorcyclist walking on foot. The motorcyclist then taps on Bean and ask him to get out of the motor and rides away.
While waiting for cars to pass by, Bean walks in to a wooden hut on the roadside. He accidently lock himself in the small hut. While he was in the hut, many cars passes by which includes the car Stephan is boarding on. Listening to the cars passing by, Bean then pulls out the hut and walks in the middle of the road. He got hit by a truck… but he came out unharmed. Bean then continues to walk.
The next morning, Bean wakes up under a cart in a French Village. The French Village is actually a set for a yogurt commercial. There, Bean saw the beautiful commercial actress, Sabine (Emma de Caunes). Bean tries to save her from explosion and attacks from the tank that ramps his bicycle. The director, Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe) then shouts “CUT” and ask other crew member to take him aside and asked him to dress up like a German soldiers and stay in the background.
After a short break, they continue to shoot the commercial. Bean marches in to the set holding his video camera. He was spotted by Carson and was fired. Before he left, he notices his video camera is out of battery. Bean then unplugs the bomb trigger to charge his camera. Carson was furious when he did not get the explosion he wants as the trigger does not function.
When his camera was fully charged, Bean unplugs and plug the trigger plug back. Carson was so busy scolding his technician then decides to push the trigger himself. When he was at an unprepared condition, the set exploded and this made Carson very mad.
Bean then tries to hitch hike again. This time a car similar to his one stop by. It was Sabine. She then offer to send Bean to Cannes since she is heading that way to the Cannes Film Festival. The show she is acting in is showing during the festival. Sabine then decides to stop at the station as she needs to go to the toilet. Bean then takes this chance to walk around. He then bumped into Stephan and the band. Sabine then decides to take Stephan along thinking he is Bean’s son.
While on the car, Bean spots Sabine’s mobile phone. He then ask Sabine if he could borrow her phone. She then agrees. Bean and Stephan continues to call his dad. However the attempts fail. Bean then ended up playing with Sabine’s phone, flipping through her ringtones. Sabine was exhausted and falls asleep on the steering wheel. Bean then saves the day and manages to swap places with Sabine.
Bean then continues to drive while Sabine and Stephan is soundly sleeping. Bean falls asleep a few times too. However, he tries very hard to stay awake which include attempts like biting himself, burning himself with the car’s cigarette lighter and even use match sticks to keep his eyes open. By morning, they reached Cannes.
They then stop for petrol in a petrol station. Sabine saw the newsflash and found out Bean actually kidnapped Stephan and now Sabine is a suspect as well. Sabine is rushing to the Film Festival, hence she decides to not drive to the nearest police station and clarify the misunderstanding. On the way to the Film Festival, they were stopped by the police for a security check. Stephan dress up as a girl and pretends to be Sabine’s daughter while Bean pretend to be Sabine’s grandmother.
They manage to pass by without being identified. When reach, Sabine wanted to bring Stephan in as well and return him to Emil since he is one of the famous directors. However, her ticket only admits one. Stephan and Bean then tries other ways to get in.
Bean and Stephan then tries to get to the backstage using a fake pass. Bean had to take down the security when he notices the pass was fake. Another security saw what Bean did and tries to catch him. Bean and Stephan runs. After losing the security, Bean hides Stephan behind the screen while he tries to look for Emil.
Among the audiences, Bean finally spot Sabine and Emil. He tries to get over to Emil however on his way to get to Emil, he pass by Sabine. Sabine was upset when Carson cuts of her scenes from the movie. feeling unfair for Sabine, Bean then gets to the projector room and locks himself inside. He then plugs his video camera in and started to pick and play clips from his trip with lots of Sabine and Stephan’s face and play it while Carson’s movie kept narrating.
Carson was angry and try all ways to get in to the projection room. Bean then sneaks out and jumps to the scene’s stage. Emil recognizes him and saw the ending footage with Stephan’s face on the screen. Emil then ask Bean to return his son to him. Stephan then appears from behind the screen and hug his parents. Carson was at first angry and upset with the fact his film was disturbed. When the crowd cheer and clapped, he pretend the whole video and movie combination was his idea.
Meanwhile, Bean walks out from the cinema and saw the Cannes beach. Like he always does, he just walk straight, stepping from roof of a bus to a truck to a car to some stools and finally he reach his destination. He was overjoyed and hops around with his video camera. There, he saw many people he previously met. Sabine was interviewed as a superstar, Carson was busy shooting stuff in a Bean manner using a video camera, Stephan and his family was enjoying themselves on the beach. At the end of the movie, Bean and all the other characters get together and sing a finale song.
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Spoiler ends here.
Compared with the previous Bean movie, I somewhat think this was lack emotional and family bonding. Yes, I notice they try to bring some bonds in but it just didn’t work. There isn’t much magical chemistry between each actor and actress. I think they try too hard to stand out as in individual. Most of them were too in to portraying their own charms.
Seriously, one could really make do without people like Carson and Emil. Right, I thought the continuity among scenes was a little messy. Probably it was done on a purpose… but it’s really very messy and I at times have a headache thinking where does this scene continues from.
Then again, it’s Bean’s movie. People doesn’t really care about everything else except Bean and his funny acts. Ah… I guess one could chew some popcorn while watching this movie since I don’t really need to pay attention to any details or script 😄