After a TV show that produced 18 episodes from 1990 to 1995 and a feature film in 1997, Rowan Atkinson announced that this year’s Mr. Bean’s Holiday would be the last appearance of his popular, child-like character. Maybe I was living in a cave in the 90s, but this film is actually my introduction to the character. Therefore, I have not yet formed an attachment or a dislike for the character and can view the film from an objective perspective.

The story couldn’t be simpler. Mr. Bean wins a dream vacation at a church raffle and sets out for Paris. From Paris he will take the train to Cannes and enjoy a week at the beach. Unfortunately for Mr. Bean—yet fortunately for the audience—the plans go awry. Mr. Bean accidentally separates a boy from his father and is later said to have kidnapped the boy. The father turns out to be a Russian film director whose movie is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Also premiering at the festival is the new film from precocious American director Carson Clay—played with delicious delight by Willem Dafoe—whose new commercial set Bean stumbles onto and is where he meets up with the beautiful actress Sabine. Together with the boy, Bean, and Sabine attempt to finish the journey to Cannes where they can reunite the boy with his father, get Sabine to her premiere, and get Bean to his ultimate destination, the beach.

The film literally stumbles from one comic set piece to another, including an encounter with authentic French cuisine, a highway pursuit of a runaway bus ticket, and a chance for Mr. Bean to show off his dance and pantomime skills. The best is reserved for the end, however, when he invades the premiere of Carson Clay’s presentation of a Carson Clay film starring Carson Clay in a Carson Clay production.

As for my first experience with the world of Mr. Bean, I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed the slapstick humor and the laughs that arise out of the situational plot, but I’m not a big fan of the character of Mr. Bean himself. Personally, I don’t find him funny. I found some of the things that happened to him funny, but I was more turned off by his crazy facial expressions than I was humored by them. I’m also unsure why—if he has to talk at all—Mr. Bean has to talk the way he does. Sometimes he sounds like Yoda, other times he sounds like a ten-year-old belching the alphabet. There were also times during the film when I felt the video camera device was getting old, but it turned out that it was necessary in the end.

Ultimately, the film’s humor is hit and miss. There were punch lines that had me bursting out into laughter and still others that didn’t elicit a reaction at all. The later is mostly due to some serious predictability with a lot of the gags. It seemed at times as if the writers and director were going out of there way to setup a gag, which ended up robbing the film of its spontaneity.

Now that you’ve read this entire review, let me make things very simple if you still haven’t made up your mind whether to plop down your hard earned cash for this film. If you’re a fan of Mr. Bean, by all means see the film. If you’re not, don’t. If you are still on the fence, I can tell you that the film did make me laugh, and sometimes that is all you need.

Mr. Bean’s Holiday is rated PG for “brief mild language.” There’s really nothing to complain about here. This is about as clean as live action films get.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Mr. Bean’s Holiday