Despite only having fourteen episodes, "Mr. Bean" was a VERY successful TV series, developing a well-deserved reputation for its excellent visual humour! Two years after the show's demise, it was decided that it was time to bring Rowan Atkinson's character to the silver screen. The result was "Bean" (a.k.a. "Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie"), but unfortunately, this didn't turn out to be nearly as good as the classic TV series, and has disappointed many fans, including me.
Mr. Bean works as a caretaker for England's Royal National Gallery, and is one lousy employee (as one would probably assume), constantly sleeping on the job! Because of this, the board of directors plans to fire him, but the chairman will not permit this. The Grierson Gallery in Los Angeles has just purchased the famous "Whistler's Mother" painting, and curator David Langley has requested that the Royal National Gallery sends an art scholar to make a speech at the unveiling of the painting. Since the board of directors can't fire Bean, they see this as an opportunity to get him out of their lives, at least temporarily, so they send him, under the name, "Dr. Bean"! David Langley has no clue that Bean is not a doctor, nor is he even an art expert, and the painting could now be in danger because of him! Not only that, the presence of the Royal National Gallery's terrible employee may also threaten the future of poor David's job and family!
This movie's main problem is that it simply isn't nearly as consistently funny as the TV series. There are quite a few funny parts, I can't deny that, but I think most of them only made me smile or snicker, not enough big laughs, which there are a lot of in the show! Also, some gags from the show are repeated in this movie, and were done better the first time. These include Mr. Bean falling asleep while sitting down and gradually falling onto his knees and head (I guess that one is not as funny when nobody else is in the picture), and getting his head stuck in a turkey dinner (the main reason why it's not as funny this time is probably because the turkey isn't as big). Now, this movie did introduce some new and funny gags, but none of them can match some of the priceless ones in the show. None of the other characters really add much to the humour, and sadly, Mr. Bean cannot steadily carry it all by himself throughout the entire thing. Towards the end, I've found the film gets a bit tiring.
Overall, I would say "Bean" was not a bad first attempt to bring the world-renowned walking disaster to the silver screen, but hardly a good one, either, they certainly didn't completely pull it off. I am only one of many fans who have been disappointed by it to some degree. I certainly don't think it's something to watch for non-stop laughs over and over again, and that's pretty much how I would describe many of the short sketches, which I'm sure many would agree with. I think most fans of the show would at least find SOME laughs in this movie, but it seems that some fans hate it, so that's certainly not a guarantee.
