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Bean: The ultimate disaster movie

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Mister Bean is taking Hollywood .... piece by piece.

It is the autumn of 1997 and a very rich benefactor (Burt Reynolds) has donated a gift of $50 million to the Grierson Gallery of California to bring the USA's greatest painting, of Whistler's mother, back home. The trustees want an eminent art scholar to dignify the unveiling ceremony, and invite the Royal National Gallery of England to send their finest academician to oversee the proceedings. However, because of internal politics, the British do not send their greatest scholar, but their most inept employee, in a desperate attempt to get him out of their lives.

Based on the character created and performed by Rowan Atkinson, Bean tells the story of a very simple man with nice, tidy hair. Be afraid. Be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very afraid.

To keep the audience involved we developed his personality. On TV, occasionally you would glimpse a sad moment which hinted at the fact that there was more to him than purely the selfish, self-centred image. By forcing Bean to interact with other people, he gradually starts to relate to them and take on board the consequences of his actions upon others. - Rebecca O'Brien, co-producer.

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Oh, the pain, the pain!

I haven't seen the Beanster for a while and I'd forgotten quite how painful he is. Pain to the point of humour (eventually), but jeez it's an effort. Kind of like if you hit yourself over the head with a brick often enough, eventually you start laughing. If you like Beanisms, you will like this film, although even on medication I recognised a few of the gags. If you don't like Bean, you will loathe this movie. There's no middle ground.

Plot-wise it's all a bit of an excuse to make a Bean movie, and the traditional American family values are more than excessive (but aren't they anyway?), to the point that I felt faintly nauseous. The implausibility of it all undercuts the humour, especially the happy ending (as if you didn't know there would be one, this film being aimed at the American market).

But I still laughed, cringed and moaned and I even hid my face in his hands and watched from between my fingers. Like you do. Some people might like to wait for it to come out on video.

Security censorship classification

PG

Surveillance time

89 minutes (1:29 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 3 July 1997

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