When this film began, I noticed a major problem at the beginning--and a problem that often plagues TV shows that are brought to the big screen. Instead of using the original writers who made the show so amazing, all-new writers were responsible for this film. Why idiots in charge of film companies do things like this is beyond me. So, from the outset, I was unimpressed and a bit baffled. I would have MUCH preferred to just see the simple sort of skits done the way they were so expertly done on the show--and the same problem existed with the first Bean film. No new locations, no guest stars to take away from the glory that is Bean and the same old writers that made it one of the best comedies in TV history.
The film finds Mr. Bean winning a raffle which gave him a trip to Cannes. Along the way there, he naturally gets into various problems and leaves a wake of destruction. Ultimately, his weird ways result in a man missing his train--and his young son is stuck on the train to Cannes alone. Bean, in an unusual display of conscience (something he generally seems devoid of in the past), he decides to help the kid--though it took his missing a train to get him to do this. What makes this a little tougher is that the kid only speaks Russian.
In many ways, this plot is rather reminiscent of the "Mind the Baby Mr. Bean" TV episode--though it throws in some pathos and schmaltz involving worried parents wondering about what has happened to their missing kid. Pathos is really something rather un-Bean like. Normally, the consequences of Bean's actions on others is rarely shown for more than a second or two--as people are usually more like objects in the show.
Overall, it IS a decent film despite my being terribly disappointed in it. For people who never raw the original show, they'll probably like it a lot more than crazed folks like me who own DVDs of the original shows and think they are the greatest things on the planet! The main problem are that there's just too much plot in the film and the writing and pacing are wrong--making it enjoyable but a shadow of the original. On the plus side, the scenery in the film is nice and it does make you want to visit the French countryside. And, while it had almost nothing to do with Bean, I really liked the self-absorbed director's film (Willem Defoe) BEFORE Bean got a hold of it--it was a wonderful commentary on some film makers and it makes you wonder who they might have been parodying.
