Bean
I feel like I’ve mentioned this movie a lot here, probably in a review that’s been lost over the years even, certainly in other reviews. I think this movie is just amazing, and it was even better this time for three reasons.
Firstly, it just plain gets better every time. Like I said in my review of Mr Bean’s Holiday, there is something more to this character than the comedy, and Mel Smith brings it out here in almost overwhelming capacity. It’s all there in that line at the end, “You could at least let me stay another week …” but it’s there throughout, too, and I see more of it every time I come back.
Then, on this occasion in particular, there’s the end credits. Firstly, these reminded me of how great the soundtrack to the movie is. Either alcohol has removed the memory from my brain, or I’ve never sat through the complete credits of this movie despite the number of times I’ve seen it. I knew Alisha’s Attic’s cover of “He’s a Rebel” was on the soundtrack but I’d only ever heard it on the soundtrack itself, but this time I finally heard it, right at the end of the end credits. The soundtrack also contains a cover of “Stuck in the Middle With You” by Susannah Hoffs and one of my alltime favourite music cues, by the ever-brilliant Howard Goodall, that covers the scene when Bean goes back to the museum and “fixes” Whistler’s Mother, itself almost an odd pre-spoof of the Thomas Crown Affair remake, lol.
Then, there’s post-credits – and I’m sure I’ve never seen this part before, I’m sure because of the reaction it got from me this time – the last credit rolls off the screen, and then over the black background, Bean sheepishly steps in from the side of the screen, and gazes at “the audience”, half-pitying, half-understanding, and says, “I always stay till the end too …” I just let out the most almighty “awwwwwwww!” of my life, lol, and if my cheeks weren’t already stained with tears from the rest of the movie, then they were thereafter. It’s exactly the beautiful side of him I was talking about in the Mr. Bean’s Holiday review … the cutest, if not the greatest, post-credits bonus I have ever seen, and I can’t believe it’s taken me a decade to get round to it, lol.
I swear if you’d talked to me about Mr. Bean about this time last month, in particular about the new movie, I would’ve probably turned up my nose something rotten … I’d kind of lost interest … watching the two movies so close together have totally reminded me why I used to love him so.