6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
An average man who lives alone, dresses in a jacket and tie, and relates to children better than adults, Mr Bean finds himself in a series of catastrophes of his own creation. As the caretaker of Britain's Royal National Gallery, he is sent to the Grierson Gallery in Los Angeles to accompany "Whistler's Mother." His misadventures begin on the trans-Atlantic flight and go on from there to their ultimate conclusion.
Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, John Mills (I), Pamela Reed, Harris YulinComedy | 100% |
Family | 86% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Funny man Rowan Atkinson is a comedian of considerable talent. His television show Mr. Bean remains a genre staple and one of the finest and funniest programs of the 1990s. From that success stems Bean, a more Americanized, and largely American-set, film in which the title character portrays a bumbling English art gallery employee who is sent overseas to accompany a priceless painting. What could possibly go wrong? While the film generates plenty of laughs, they're almost entirely thanks to Atkinson's prowess for physical humor. The story has been dumbed down to essentials but that at least leaves room for Atkinson to work his magic. Situational comedy reigns as the character finds a way to inadvertently and entirely innocently lay waste to a man's family structure and threaten and destroy one of the art world's greatest treasures. It's a fun escape even if it's just a comedy sketch stretched to 90 minutes.
Bean's 1080p presentation is not a work of art. It's besieged by edge enhancement, not in every shot but prominent in many places and obviously left over from the very dated DVD-era master used for the release. The image presents with extremely thick, chunky grain and various spots and speckles appear with some regularity throughout. Fortunately, the image does not suffer from any egregious noise reduction, and textures are resultant sturdy enough, enjoying good baseline complexity for a film-sourced video presentation. Faces and clothes find enough depth and detail to please, and the image appears decently filmic on the whole. Colors are neutral, neither standout nor dull, but nighttime black levels in chapter six are quite fine, appearing with good depth and minimal crush. This is certainly not the best Bean could ever look, though it's far from a disaster, and probably reaches as high as a 3.5 score at its best.
Bean features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is largely front-heavy with a few exceptions. A movie theater roller coaster ride delivers a healthy, forceful surround engagement. The scene's audio is not the clearest ever heard, but the forceful expansion is a welcome diversion from an otherwise straightforward listening experience. A turkey explosion 38 minutes into the movie sends a decent concussive blast through the stage, though forget anything like subtlety or precision. Music can be triumphantly large, the reveal of the painting in LA at the 42 minute mark being perhaps the best example. Again, clarity and fine sonic detail are not top priorities, but the raw impact is fairly satisfying. There's decent din when a gaggle of reporters assemble for the painting's debut in chapter seven. Dialogue dominates the film and it presents with healthy clarity and firm front-center positioning.
Bean's Blu-ray contains no supplemental content. The release does not ship with a DVD, digital copy, or slipcover. No top menu is included. Blu-ray's don't get more bare-bones than this.
Bean cannot match the wry and physical humor of the classic television show, but it's a solid enough laugher that sees Atkinson doing what he does best, bumbling his way into adventure, stumbling through trouble, and putting together enough common sense to escape a sticky situation. The film plays more like a 10-minute sketch -- crazy man accidentally ruins a priceless work of art and frenetically attempts to set things right -- stretched out to film length, but it's not necessarily all that much worse for the extension. Good character interplay and plenty of funny bits elevate the material into a humorous escape that both Mr. Bean fans and newcomers alike should find to be a simple and agreeable distraction. Universal's featureless Blu-ray offers passable video and decent audio. Recommended.
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