Back in the sixties and seventies it was relatively common practice for popular UKTV series to make the occasional jump to the big screen. These were not trendy retro remakes a la The Brady Bunch Movie or Leave it to Beaver but films made with the original cast contemporary to the show's original run.. Classic British TV series such as The Sweeney, Steptoe and Son, Are You Being Served, Doctor Who, and Monty Python's Flying Circus, among others, would release feature films (and sometimes even sequels to the feature films). In recent years this practice has tailed off to be replaced by the feature length television movie, all to often no more than a typical series episode padded out to accommodate the expanded time slot. Gone are the bigger budgets and higher quality production values that made the film versions so special to fans in the first place.
And then there's Mr. Bean. Rowan Atkinson's child-like Bean should have faced long odds for theatrical success, after all how many box office hits these days feature lead characters who are nearly mute and rely on broad, but brilliant, physical humour to score laughs? Well, The Mr. Bean movie for one! The film "Bean" is already doing boffo bizness throughout Europe and is set to open in the States shortly hoping to tap the already existing cult audience Mr Bean enjoys here as well as conquering the American movie going public at large, especially the all important youth audience being courted through ads on such outlets as The Cartoon Network which seem to be trying to sell the sublime Atkinson as the British Jim Carey!
Atkinson has been a comic mainstay since his days at Not the Nine O'clock News though his breakthrough came with his tour de force performances in the four Blackadder series (all of which are super though the second and third installments are probably the best). Portraying 4 generations of Edmund Blackadders through history Atkinson developed a loyal and deserved following worldwide and when it was announce that there would be no more Blackadder series britcom fans were sent into fits of despair. Atkinson, however, had a surprise up his sleeve in the form of Mr. Bean. Following the success of Bean (which first aired on HBO in the US) Atkinson moved on to the much awaited but generally disappointing Thin Blue Line. Simply put, Rowan Atkinson is one of the funniest men on the planet.
"Bean" is not Atkinsons' first foray onto the big screen. Earlier roles included an appearance opposite Sean Connery in his Bond comeback vehicle Never Say Never Again, a brilliant supporting turn in the much underrated
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