Mr Bean’s Holiday (2007)
A while ago, I reviewed the first Mr Bean film. And about a decade on from this, it was decided that it was about time to do a sequel. It wasn’t like Rowan “the rubber-faced funnyman” Atkinson had been frequently playing Mr Bean in the years since. The TV series had long-since ended, and there had only been a few adverts and Comic Relief sketches, plus the animated version.
So maybe the time was right to have an attempt at doing it all again. Mr Bean wins a holiday to France in a raffle, along with €200 and a camera. And well, wherever he goes, chaos will definitely follow him. Now I’m sure that there’s nothing that he would like to do more than visit a little village, and put his knotted hanky and string vest on, along with his little shorts and socks, and sit on a deckchair and just take in the nice view while the fish swim around.
But he still hasn’t really received the gift of speech all these years on, and continues to bumble his way everywhere. He does try and take in the sights, and there are some amusing moments as he goes on his travels, but there has to be a twist in this somewhere. His messing around results in a father not being able to get on a train with his son.
And the look on the boy’s face, it was horrible, even I thought that this was a bizarre move too far. He then has to look after him and try and reunite him, but there is a language barrier. And then somehow he manages to end up at the Cannes Film Festival. The film of him having his dinner that was on his camera unexpectedly wins several awards. Everything does turn out fine though of course.
He’ll definitely have a great story to tell his favourite teddy bear when he finally gets back home. Some critics felt that Mr Bean’s Holiday was a rehash of some old ideas, and making silly faces constantly isn’t enough to make a film amusing. It seems that the format had finally been exhausted somewhat. DVD extras include a making-of, and over 15 deleted scenes. It seems that this film’s legacy is frequently being shown in a double-bill on ITV2 on weekend afternoons with Shrek 2.
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 
“Some critics felt that Mr Bean’s Holiday was a rehash of some old ideas, and making silly faces constantly isn’t enough to make a film amusing. It seems that the format had finally been exhausted somewhat.”
Nonetheless, its current IMDb rating is 6.4 – putting it ahead of all the Johnny English films. 😉
And there are some notable names in the rest of the cast, too – Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin, four Oscar nominations), Emma de Caunes (daughter of Eurotrash presenter Antoine) and Rowan’s own daughter Lily (who also pops up in the second Johnny English film).
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