Bean

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Mr. Bean The Ultimate Disaster Movie
Bean film poster
Directed by	Mel Smith
Produced by	Rowan Atkinson Peter Bennet-Jones Tim Bevan Richard Curtis Eric Fellner Rebecca O'Brien
Written by	Richard Curtis Robin Driscoll
Starring	Rowan Atkinson Peter MacNicol Burt Reynolds Pamela Reed Richard Gant
Music by	Howard Goodall
Cinematography	Francis Kenny
Editing by	Christopher Blunden
Studio	Polygram Filmed Entertainment Working Title Films Tiger Aspect Productions
Distributed by	Gramercy Pictures
Release date(s)	January 5, 1996
Running time	90 min.
Country	United States  United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Followed by	Mr. Bean's Holiday

Bean, also known as Mr. Bean The Ultimate Disaster Movie is a 1996 feature film based on the television series Mr. Bean. It stars Rowan Atkinson in the title role and Peter MacNicol. It was directed by Mel Smith, with whom Atkinson had previously worked on Not the Nine O'Clock News. The film re-used many of the ideas from the original television series, although it was set mainly in California. The tagline is Be afraid. Be very afraid. Mr. Bean has a passport. The movie premiered on NBC in 2000.

Plot

Mr. Bean, a hopeless curator at the "Royal National Gallery", London, is sent by his employers, who wish to get rid of him, to America under "Dr. Bean" to oversee the transfer of Whistler's Mother to a Los Angeles art gallery. His visit has been engineered by Los Angeles curator David Langley (Peter MacNicol), who, impressed by the National Gallery's fabricated praise of Bean, decides to board him into his home. Bean arrives, following police detainment at the airport due to his absurd antics. He wins the affection of David's son Kevin (Andrew Lawrence), but perturbs wife Alison (Pamela Reed) and daughter Jennifer (Tricia Vessey).

Bean's arrival at the gallery worries David's colleagues, particularly his boss George Grierson (Harris Yulin), but David promises he can handle Bean. Upon his return home with Bean, Alison departs for a relative's home with the kids, unwilling to live with Bean. With his family gone, David decides to take Bean on a tour of the Los Angeles art galleries. However, Bean decides that he would rather go to Pacific Park. He lands in police detainment once again following mischief on a motion simulator ride. This prompts Lieutenant Brutus (Richard Gant), who dealt with Bean at the airport, to swear David to accountability for Bean, threatening bodily harm to the visitor if they ever cross paths again. Following a miserable dinner with Grierson and his wife, which David had forgotten, he finally realises that Bean is an impostor who knows nothing about art. Whistler's Mother arrives at the gallery next morning. Bean is given a few minutes alone to study it, in an effort to keep him out of trouble. However, whilst dusting the frame, Bean sneezes on the painting and wipes it with a handkerchief, not knowing that it is covered in blue ink. Terrified, Bean takes it to the caretaker's cupboard to get some agent by which to remove the ink. He uses lacquer thinner, which also removes the painted face from the painting. Bean attempts to patch it up with an extremely unconvincing cartoon face. Upon seeing it, David is horrified and hides the painting in the metallic frame. Fearing he will lose his job and possibly face criminal proceedings for the vandalism, he and Bean drink at a bar for several hours.

During the night, Mr. Bean hatches a plan to restore the painting. He gathers a few items from the house and makes his way to the gallery. He distracts the only security guard on duty by putting laxative in his coffee and exchanges the painting for a poster version of itself. At the unveiling the next day, David is overjoyed to find the painting restored while Bean gives a brief but effective speech regarding the work.

The speech is another high point for the movie. Everybody expects Mr. Bean to take the podium at the press conference and prove himself to be a moron on National TV, however, the words flowing from his mouth are both very simple and very, very deep, cementing the public's perception of him as a scholarly virtuoso.

After the unveiling, Lieutenant Brutus finds David and informs him that his daughter, Jennifer, has been involved in a motorcycle accident and is in intensive care. David is given a police escort to the hospital, although Brutus stops on the way to deal with an armed robber.

Whistler's Mother

Due to a mix-up at the hospital, Bean is mistaken for a doctor and pushed into an operating theatre containing Brutus, who has been shot. While the other doctors and nurses are distracted, Bean unconventionally retrieves the bullet and saves him. Bean is again mistaken for a doctor, this time by David who pulls him in to see Jennifer, who is unconscious. Bean is unsure what to do and starts playing about with a defibrillator, managing to electrocute himself and revive Jennifer in the process. Still not recognising him as Bean, David and Alison stop him and tell him that they will offer him anything. Bean then asks if he can stay for another week.

After another week in Los Angeles with the Langleys, Bean goes home, accompanied by the original Whistler's Mother.

Cast

• Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean
• Peter MacNicol as David Langley
• John Mills as Chairman
• Pamela Reed as Alison Langley
• Harris Yulin as George Grierson
• Burt Reynolds as General Newton
• Larry Drake as Elmer
• Sandra Oh as Bernice Schimmel
• Danny Goldring as Security Buck
• Johnny Galecki as Stingo Wheelie
• Chris Ellis as Detective Butler
• Andrew Lawrence as Kevin Langley
• Peter Egan as Lord Walton
• Peter Capaldi as Gareth
• June Brown as Delilah
• Peter James as Doctor Rosenblum
• Tricia Vessey as Jennifer Langley
• Richard Gant as Lieutenant Brutus

Reception

The film was criticised for breaking with the program's tradition of having Mr. Bean as the centre of weird attention and for the alleged Americanisation required to sell it overseas (Bean also speaks intelligibly, albeit with apparent difficulty, as opposed to his frequent mumbling in the TV show).^[1] However, the movie grossed over USD$250 million globally on a budget estimated at $22 million.^[2] It was followed by a sequel in 2007 called Mr. Bean's Holiday.^[3]

The film currently has a 41% "rotten" rating amongst collated reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics suggesting that it was over-long and lacking in jokes.^[4]

Rating

The film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for moments of risqué humour. In the UK and Australia, the movie was classified PG for "Adult Themes".

When the movie was broadcast on NBC in 2000, the "middle finger" scene was replaced with a scene where Bean orders a hot dog with "everything" on it. As David is about to take a picture of him eating the hot dog, Bean pauses for a few seconds, then, looks at what's been put in the hot dog, then smells it, and then recoils with a look of nausea on his face.

The UK Pal Home Video release contains 21 minutes of footage not seen at the cinemas.

The US NTSC Home Video release has a sticker on the cover that says Bonus 17 minutes of footage.

Soundtrack

The film's original score was by Howard Goodall, who had also written the music for the television series, although the original Mr. Bean theme was not used. Other non-original songs were also featured, in particular The Beatles' "Yesterday" (sung by Wet Wet Wet).

The CD soundtrack also featured a song not used in the film, a cover of the Alice Cooper song "Elected" (from the Billion Dollar Babies album) performed by famed Iron Maiden lead singer and Heavy metal icon Bruce Dickinson which features sound dubs of Mr. Bean making campaign promises. This had been used for Comic Relief in 1992.

Boyzone also released a song for the film, entitled "Picture of You".

List of songs performed by various artists

1. I Love L.A. - Randy Newman
2. Picture Of You - Boyzone
3. I Get Around - The Beach Boys
4. Walking On Sunshine - Katrina And The Waves
5. Yesterday - Wet Wet Wet
6. Running Back For More - Louise
7. That Kinda Guy - Thomas Jules-Stock
8. Give Me A Little More Time - Gabrielle
9. He's A Rebel - Alisha's Attic
10. Stuck In The Middle With You - Susanna Hoffs
11. Art For Art's Sake - 10cc
12. Have Fun, Go Mad - Blair
13. Can We Talk (Pure Radio Mix) - Code Red
14. Bean Theme (Mad Pianos) - Howard Goodall
15. Elected - Mr. Bean And The Smear Campaign featuring Bruce Dickinson

References

External links

• Bean at the Internet Movie Database
• Bean at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bean at Metacritic
• Bean at Box Office Mojo
• Bean at Allmovie
• BBC review

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