Bean [Blu-ray]

Director: Mel Smith Mel Smith

Overview

One of Britain's most popular, comical television characters, the taciturn, child-like, clumsy, conniving and ever ingenious Mr. Bean (Rowan "Black Adder" Atkinson) makes his big-screen debut in this riotous slapstick comedy. A creation of Atkinson and writers Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll, Mr. Bean started out in a half-hour television series around 1990; since then his show has become one of the highest rated comedies on British television and has gained an international cult following. With a style reminiscent of the great silent comedians, Bean is an average, albeit eccentric, Joe with a knack for turning the most innocuous situations into full-blown disasters. Whereas the television shows are nearly silent, Mr. Bean has a lot more dialog in the film. The film begins at the dawn of a typical day with Bean shaving his whole face, including his tongue. After a quick cup of coffee, he heads off for his job as guard/caretaker at the Royal National Gallery where he is supposed to prevent visitors from touching the artwork. Instead, Bean spends most of his time sleeping. His supervisors try to fire him, but a board member (John Mills) intervenes and saves his job. To get rid of him, Bean's bosses conspire to send him to a posh Los Angeles private art gallery where as an "art scholar" he will deliver a speech to commemorate the return of "Whistler's Mother" which was purchased by Army General Newton (Burt Reynolds) through a deal facilitated by the gallery owner George Grierson (Harris Yulin). Bean is to stay with the family of David Langley (Peter MacNicol), the gallery director. He isn't there long before he nearly destroys the place. His speech at the gallery is even more cataclysmic. To make matters worse, a series of mishaps leads Bean to be mistaken for a prominent surgeon and forced to perform emergency surgery on a police officer.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/14/2018
UPC:	0191329048436
Original Release:	1997
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Universal
Language:	English
Time:	1:31:00
Sales rank:	19,862

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Rowan Atkinson	Mr. Bean
Peter MacNicol	David Langley
Pamela Reed	Alison Langley
Tricia Vessey	Jennifer Langley
Andrew Lawrence	Kevin Langley
Harris Yulin	George Grierson
Burt Reynolds	General Newton
Richard Gant	Lieutenant Brutus
Chris Ellis	Detective Butler
Sandra Oh	Bernice Schimmel
Peter Egan	Lord Walton
Tom McGowan	Walter Merchandise
Peter Capaldi	Gareth
Scott Charles	Timmy Pewker Jr.
Alison Goldie	Stewardess Nicely
Julia Pearlstein	Phyllis Quill
Rob Brownstein	Dick Journo
Clive Corner	Dr. Cutler
June Brown	Delilah
Thomas Mills	Officer Stubbles,Chairman
Larry Drake	Elmer
Johnny Galecki	Stingo Wheelie
Priscilla Shanks	Sylvia Grierson
Dakin Matthews	Passenger Tucker
Richard Hicks	Kart Pusherman
Peter James	Dr. Rosenblum
Ronnie Yeskel	Mrs. Goodwoman
Danny Goldring	Security Buck
Gigi Fields	Nurse Desking
Lela Ivey	Nurse Pots
David Doty	Dr. Jacobson
April Grace	Nurse Pans
Robert Curtis Brown	Doctor Frowning
Perry Anzilotti	Dr. Squeaking
Janni Brenn-Lowen	Nurse Dyper
Annette Helde	Nurse Gripes
Reg Thomason	National Art Gallery Board Member
Janni Brenn	Nurse Dyper
Robert Curtis-Brown	Doctor Frowning
Howard Goodall	Composer

Technical Credits

Richard Curtis

Robyn Driscoll

Mel Smith	Director
Richard Curtis	Screenwriter,Executive Producer
Peter Bennett-Jones	Producer
Eric Fellner	Producer
Tim Bevan	Producer
Rowan Atkinson	Executive Producer
Robyn Driscoll	Screenwriter
Ronnie Yeskell	Casting

Editorial Reviews

A monster hit internationally, this comedy showcases the physically expressive talents of actor Rowan Atkinson, who provides a few major laughs in elaborate slapstick sequences, some of them cribbed wholesale from his winning British TV series featuring the same character. Atkinson is a comic gem, a throwback to an earlier era of silent screen legends such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and his gifts are most fully realized in the mealy-mouthed, unflappably odd-duck character of Bean. Overall, however, the film suffers the same fate as many other projects in translation from the small screen to the big, experienced most frequently in the attempt to transform sketches from the NBC series Saturday Night Live to the cinema. In dumbing down the jokes, "opening up" a character (read: making an oddball less offensive), and generally seeking to broaden the appeal of a skit that might have been obscure or off-putting to some segment of the audience, mainstream films repeatedly sap their source material of the original humor. Such is often the case in this silly concoction that seeks to Americanize a thoroughly British invention by shooting it in the sun-drenched, rainbow-colored hues that scream "Comedy!" for the funny bone-impaired, even tossing actor Burt Reynolds into the addled mix -- as a general, no less. Worse, Mr. Bean is shockingly verbose in comparison to his earlier incarnations, a development that may have been essential to the narrative but robs the quirky spasmodic of his rib-tickling charm. Bean is a worthy attempt to bring a little-known comic's abundant skills to light, but the filmmakers don't trust their audience to "get it," with the end result suffering a serious case of lowest common denominator.