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Dom Robinson reviews
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:
- Mel Smith
(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 Movieis the big-screen spin-off from RowanAtkinson highly-successful occasional television series.
When the Royal National Gallery of London is asked to send their finest scholarto oversee the unveiling of Whistler’s Mother in California, they send theirmost inept and detested employee, in a desperate attempt to get him out oftheir lives.
Within days of his arrival, Mr. Bean destroys virtually everything he comes intocontact with, be it the career and marriage of his host or America’s greatestpainting.
The picture quality is mostly excellent with artifacts only visible if you’rereally looking for them. It’s not surprising then that the bitrate is high withan average rate of 6.14Mb/s. The disc is also 16:9-enhanced for widescreentelevisions.
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 fullscreenversion.
The sound on the disc is Dolby Digital 5.1, for both English and Germanlanguage soundtracks. This isn’t something usually adhered to by many DVDcompanies as they only give the full works for the original language the filmwas recorded in. What if you haven’t got a DD5.1 setup? Not a problem as thesound is downmixed to Dolby ProLogic for those without the requesite DD5.1equipment.
The sound quality is very good indeed, but is mainly relegated to the musicscore and ambience. This isn’t the sort of film you buy to expectdogfights aplenty, but there is a fairly good selection of music in the formof Katrina and The Waves (Walking On Sunshine), SusannahHoffs (Stuck In The Middle With You), 10cc (Art For Art’sSake), Blair (Have Fun Go Mad), Randy Newman (ILove L.A.) – as well as OMC‘s cover of this song – and Alisha’sAttic (He’s A Rebel) during the end credits.
Extras : Chapters :There are 20 chapters spread throughout the film which is enough for an 86minute film. There is no theatrical trailer, even though more than one gracesthe Region 1 DVD, not to mention the promo video for OMC’s cover of I LoveL.A.. Cast And Crew Biographies :There are detailed biographies for Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, BurtReynolds, writer Richard Curtis and director Mel Smith. All of the contentappearing on screen in this section is replicated in the accompanying bookletwhich is written in both English and German. Coming Soon :This option brings up a selection of available and forthcoming titles fromPolygram : The Game, Spiceworld: The Movie, Cats andAndrea Bocelli: A Night In Tuscany. Languages :
The disc contains English and German language soundtracks both in DolbyDigital 5.1 plus subtitles for the same.
Menu :
The interactive menu is better here than on most titles with a click of themouse doing exactly what is required, unlike some other titles I havereviewed.
Another thing to note is that on playing the disc you can’t skip past thecopyright 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 scriptinto 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 materialand/or rehashed ideas from the TV episodes.
The presentation is an improvement on some of Polygram’s previousefforts since it includes both formats of the film, Dolby Digital 5.1 soundand a nice booklet written in both English and German.
As stated earlier, the Region 1 DVD (RRP $29.99) contains everything herein addition to more than one theatrical trailer, plus a music video so thatis this disc’s main competition. The fullscreen, trailer-less UK PAL videois not.FILM : **PICTURE QUALITY : ****½SOUND QUALITY: ****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ***
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.