Bean . Newcity Chicago . 11-10-97

Bean

DIRECTED BY: Mel Smith

REVIEWED: 11-10-97

Brief, brisk, dumb without undue kiddie gross-out gags, "Bean" is a giddy, stop-and-start laugh machine, capturing Rowan Atkinson's television-bred Bean character, a man of few words, in the middle of more than a couple of well-made pranks and an even greater number of sloppily-shot and hastily-cobbled ones. (This time out, director Mel Smith eschews the "Un film de Mel Smith" credit he had taken on "The Tall Guy.") Atkinson's Bean is a cruel child, his expressions the gleeful garble of a nasty baby. He gets thrown off planes, lies, blows up Thanksgiving turkeys, draws graffiti on masterpieces. Some are funny, some are funnier, and it's all over very quickly. Working with writer Richard Curtis ("Blackadder," "4 Weddings & A Funeral"), one would hope that Bean will find himself in the center of a comedy of sustained brilliance, rather than an intermittently wonderful one that's grossed over $100 million worldwide before opening in the U.S. 85m.

--Ray Pride

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