Bean (1997)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Mel Smith

Writers:

Rowan Atkinson (characters) &
Richard Curtis (characters) ...

Release Date:

7 November 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

One Man. One Masterpiece. One Very Big Mistake.

Plot:

Bean works as a caretaker at Britain's formidable Royal National Gallery, and his bosses want to fire him because he sleeps at work all the time...

Plot Keywords:

Whistler's Mother | Los Angeles California | London England | Husband Wife Relationship | Friendship

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Rowan Atkinson	...	Mr. Bean
Peter MacNicol	...	David Langley
John Mills	...	Chairman (as Sir John Mills)
Pamela Reed	...	Alison Langley
Harris Yulin	...	George Grierson
Burt Reynolds	...	General Newton
Larry Drake	...	Elmer
Danny Goldring	...	Security Buck
Johnny Galecki	...	Stingo Wheelie
Chris Ellis	...	Det. Butler
Andrew Lawrence	...	Kevin Langley
Peter Egan	...	Lord Walton
Peter Capaldi	...	Gareth
June Brown	...	Delilah
Peter James	...	Dr. Rosenblum

Also Known As:

Bean: The Movie (USA) (video box title)
Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie (Hong Kong: English title)
Dr. Bean (UK) (working title)
Bean - äärimmäinen katastrofielokuva (Finland) [fi]
Bean - Den totala katastroffilmen (Sweden) [sv]
Bean - Den ultimative katastrofefilm (Denmark) [da]
Bean - Der ultimative Katastrophenfilm (Germany) [de]
Bean - I ypertati tainia katastrofis (Greece) [el]
Bean, el nombre del desastre (Venezuela) [es]
Bean, la película del desastre (Argentina) [es]
Bean, le film le plus catastrophe (France) [fr]
Bean, lo último en cine catastrófico (Spain) [es]
Bean-En büyük felaket filmi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Bean... film vrhunske katastrofe (Croatia) [hr]
Bean: L'ultime film catastrophe (Canada: French title) (TV title) [fr]
Bean: O comedie dezastru (Romania) [ro]
Bean: Um Autêntico Desastre (Portugal) [pt]
Bean: lo último en cine catastrófico (Spain) [es]
Jas fasola (Poland) [pl]
Mister Bean - O Filme (Brazil) [pt]
Mr. Bean - L'ultima catastrofe (Italy) [it]
Mr. Bean - O Filme (Brazil) (alternative spelling) [pt]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for moments of risque humor.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:PG | South Korea:12 | Italy:T | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Canada:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Netherlands:AL | Norway:7 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #35186) | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Polygram Filmed Entertainment

Trivia:

Steve Martin, a self-confessed huge fan of Mr. Bean, wanted to play David Langley.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The real painting is actually bigger than the one used in the film.

Quotes:

Mr. Bean: Hello, I'm Dr. Bean. Apparently. And my job is to sit and look at paintings. So, what have I learned that I can say about this painting? Well, firstly, it's quite big, which is excellent. If it were very small, microscopic, then hardly anyone would be able to see it. Which would be a shame. Secondly, and I'm getting quite near the end of this...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)

Soundtrack:

Walking On Sunshine

Some funny moments, but generally fails to capture the magic, charm or humour of the series

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

At a renowned art gallery in Los Angeles, a major event in the shape of the unveiling of one of the most famous American portraits of all time, Whistler's Mother, is about to happen. But the yanks need an art expert from Britain to come over and give an analysis of the painting, so they call on their friends in The Royal National Gallery of Art in London to send over one of their finest experts on the subject. Unfortunately for them, the heads of the gallery are more interested in using this as an opportunity to rid themselves of their most inept and detested employee Mr Bean (Rowan Atkinson) passing him off as an expert and sending him across the pond to the care of Dr Langley (Peter MacNicol.) Intently interested in Bean and what he's got to say, the poor man and his family have no idea what they have just let themselves in for as disaster and calamity ensue before the big day of the unveiling.

Mr Bean the series certainly enjoyed a huge following over here but I'm surprised it sustained a big enough following to warrant such a big budget production as this. I'm not sure how well this did in the states or on which side of the pond most of the filming took place on but whatever way you look at it, this just takes the concept of the series and mangles it up rather, leaving us with a film that nowhere near manages to capture the magic and charm that the series did. It's funny in places, but generally this has added more of an American edge to the Bean formula which misunderstands the humour of Bean. In the series, it was never that Bean was an outright idiot- he was just a man who perceived the world a little differently to everyone else and tended to do things his own way, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. Here he is presented as a typical sort of slow-minded dolt of the sort you see trotted out in many American comedy films, robbing him of his distinctively innocent edge that carried him through the series.

Other things aren't right with the film too, including the naff plot and script which are flawed and fail to hold together. The film will make you laugh in places but it mostly mangles the humour of what makes Bean Bean and is funny because of this, not what made Bean so great in the first place. **