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Dom Robinson reviews

Bean

The Ultimate Disaster Movie

Distributed by
Polygram

Cat.no: 046 912 2
Cert: PG
Running time: 86 minutes
Year: 1997
Pressing: 1998
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 20 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 (for both languages)
Languages: English, German
Subtitles: English, German
Widescreen: 1.85; Fullscreen: 4:3
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Price: £17.99
Extras : Scene index, Biographies, Booklet

Director:

Radioland Murders, The Tall Guy

Producers:

Peter Bennett-Jones, Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan

Screenplay:

Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll

Music:

Howard Goodall

Cast:

Mr. Bean: Rowan Atkinson (Four Weddings And A Funeral, Never Say Never Again, The Witches, TV: "Blackadder", "Not The Nine O'Clock News", "The Thin Blue Line")
David Langley: Peter MacNicol (Dracula: Dead And Loving It, Housesitter, Sophie's Choice)
Alison Langley: Pamela Reed (Junior, Kindergarten Cop, The Right Stuff)
General Newton: Burt Reynolds (The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, Boogie Nights, City Heat, Deliverance, Sharkey's Machine, Smokey And The Bandit 1 and 2, Striptease)
Lord Walton: Peter Egan
Chairman: Sir John Mills (Ghandi, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Ice Cold In Alex, We Dive At Dawn)
Gareth: Peter Capaldi (Captives, Shooting Fish, Soft Top Hard Shoulder, TV: "Prime Suspect 3")
Delilah: June Brown (TV: "Eastenders")
Elmer: Larry Drake (Kuffs, Tales From The Crypt, TV: "L.A. Law")

Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie is the big-screen spin-off from Rowan Atkinson highly-successful occasional television series.

When the Royal National Gallery of London is asked to send their finest scholar to oversee the unveiling of Whistler's Mother in California, they send their most inept and detested employee, in a desperate attempt to get him out of their lives.

Within days of his arrival, Mr. Bean destroys virtually everything he comes into contact with, be it the career and marriage of his host or America's greatest painting.

The picture quality is mostly excellent with artifacts only visible if you're really looking for them. It's not surprising then that the bitrate is high with an average rate of 6.14Mb/s. The disc is also 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions.

There are two versions available here: the widescreen version - which at 1.78:1 (16:9) is close to the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 - and the fullscreen version.

The sound on the disc is Dolby Digital 5.1, for both English and German language soundtracks. This isn't something usually adhered to by many DVD companies as they only give the full works for the original language the film was recorded in. What if you haven't got a DD5.1 setup? Not a problem as the sound is downmixed to Dolby ProLogic for those without the requesite DD5.1 equipment.

The sound quality is very good indeed, but is mainly relegated to the music score and ambience. This isn't the sort of film you buy to expect dogfights aplenty, but there is a fairly good selection of music in the form of Katrina and The Waves (Walking On Sunshine), Susannah Hoffs (Stuck In The Middle With You), 10cc (Art For Art's Sake), Blair (Have Fun Go Mad), Randy Newman (I Love L.A.) - as well as OMC's cover of this song - and Alisha's Attic (He's A Rebel) during the end credits.

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 20 chapters spread throughout the film which is enough for an 86 minute film. There is no theatrical trailer, even though more than one graces the Region 1 DVD, not to mention the promo video for OMC's cover of I Love L.A..

Cast And Crew Biographies :

There are detailed biographies for Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, Burt Reynolds, writer Richard Curtis and director Mel Smith. All of the content appearing on screen in this section is replicated in the accompanying booklet which is written in both English and German.

Coming Soon :

This option brings up a selection of available and forthcoming titles from Polygram : The Game, Spiceworld: The Movie, Cats and Andrea Bocelli: A Night In Tuscany.

Languages :

The disc contains English and German language soundtracks both in Dolby Digital 5.1 plus subtitles for the same.

Menu :

The interactive menu is better here than on most titles with a click of the mouse doing exactly what is required, unlike some other titles I have reviewed.

Another thing to note is that on playing the disc you can't skip past the copyright info. Selecting "Play Movie" brings up the Polygram logo.

Overall, if you're a big Mr. Bean fan then you'll buy this without question, but whereas I find the TV programmes are worth a watch once and rarely twice, this film, like most TV-to-cinema adaptions, stretches a 30-minute script into 90-minutes, leaving a few really good ideas in, such as pulling the 'gun' stunt in the airport, but filling the rest with much less funny material and/or rehashed ideas from the TV episodes.

The presentation is an improvement on some of Polygram's previous efforts since it includes both formats of the film, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and a nice booklet written in both English and German.

As stated earlier, the Region 1 DVD (RRP $29.99) contains everything here in addition to more than one theatrical trailer, plus a music video so that is this disc's main competition. The fullscreen, trailer-less UK PAL video is not.

FILM	 		: **
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ****½
SOUND QUALITY		: ****
EXTRAS			: **
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.

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