Mr. Bean’s Holiday – HD DVD
December 5, 2007 – 1:19 AM --- by: Justin Sluss
has an average rating of 6.1 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 30gb Combo disc
Dolby TrueHD & Digital Plus 5.1
include “Web-Enabled” features
– 
– 2007
– 90 minutes
– Universal
Buy it for $27.95 @ Amazon.com
The Movie Itself is the second film about British comedian Rowan Atkinson’s character “Mr. Bean.” The character originated on the British television series of the same name which first aired on January 1st, 1990. The show ran for 5 years and has since developed a large following. As I said earlier this is the second film the character has had. The first film was released in 1997 and called “Bean.” It didn’t really do too well at the box-office in it’s theatrical run. It ended up finding it’s “home” though for Universal on home video (DVD). This second film had a US theatrical run but again like the first didn’t seem to be a hit. Now that it’s eventually found it’s way to home video in the means of High Definition on HD DVD, I think it will find it’s “home” again like the first film did on home video release.
The movie itself is NOT the best comedy ever made by any means but it is absolutely full of laughs and it also tells a really nice story in the process. I could really get into detail and tell you the plot but this is a short film and it’s a different style of film that most comedies these days. So I’ll just say this. Willem Dafoe is in the supporting cast to the film and that’s enough. With all that being said (I know it was a bit), I’ve always been a fan of “Mr. Bean” and I can honestly say this didn’t disappoint me in the slightest. I think other fans will like what they see here. Hopefully Universal will notice and we’ll get to see the first film “Bean” eventually released on HD DVD. Rowan Atkinson truly puts on an amazing performance in this film and is our modern day equivalent of a Charlie Chaplin in ways.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in VC-1 on a 30 gigabyte Dual-Layered HD DVD Combo Format disc. This is the type of Review I go into this portion upset by the very low rating another Reviewer has given it. This being like most cases it’s from the Review by Peter M. Bracke. He gave the overall video quality a 3 out of 5 stars rating. I’m here to now tell you that Peter as some other members of the press and I joke, is “OFFICIALLY BLIND.” Not only did he rate this totally incorrect he also put the film was RATED “PG-13” when it’s in actuality rated only “G.” They soon corrected this within minutes of reading this Review I’m happy to tell you. This makes me giggle. Truth be known others out there saw it over the past few days and have laughed at him as well. He’s honestly not someone whom I’d trust the opinion of (anymore especially, not that I ever did). I mean this video transfer comes across absolutely brilliant and I almost honestly considered giving it a “5 Star” Rating but I’ll discuss why I didn’t later.
At first thought you think visuals for a movie about “Mr. Bean” and your face kind of cringes or makes a smirk. Rowan isn’t the most handsome devil alive as the character so you’d think this film wouldn’t deliver amazing video quality if you based your opinion on such stereotypical thinking as that. “Bean” is after all on a “Holiday” in the beautiful France none-the-less. The backgrounds of the French landscapes look absolutely breathtaking here in this video transfer with a very rich vibrant color palette. The skin tones are fine and black level very solid. There’s very little film grain or noise present and no signs of any type of pixilation or artifacts to be found. The picture is pretty sharp in comparison to some other recent HD DVD releases.
With that all being said about the overall video quality and such. I just didn’t find this to be quite as sharp as “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” or “Transformers” (both also on HD DVD) which in my honest opinion are “5 Star Material.” That’s why I didn’t see this deserving to be on that same scale of rating as those releases in terms of video quality. Do not get me wrong, there are no flaws and honestly for this film I guess you could really almost consider it “Reference Material.” I’d also say if comedy is your friend’s passion I’d say this is probably one of your best bets on HD DVD for a “demo disc.”
Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 @448kbps. Going into a film about a character like “Mr. Bean” you have to first understand that the man barely speaks, he mostly mumbles. Also very worth noting is the fact he’s almost 95% of this film visiting France and doesn’t speak French, he repeats it badly yes but speaks it or understands it no. So dialogue mostly isn’t going to be totally important to most American viewers. Instead Atkinson’s body language and the subtitles translating the French will be what you rely on for dialogue (or story telling really) most of the time.
Yes there are parts of the film when English is spoken, namely in the parts with Willem Dafoe. These portions of dialogue come across great in the center channel and front channels. Another thing important to this film is it’s Score, done here by Howard Godall. It is delivered nicely in both 5.1 mixes with a great dynamic range but just like in other cases I found the Dolby TrueHD held the “extra oomph!” as we call it here at HighDefDiscNews. The two 5.1 mixes (in English) definitely get their job done with the subject material at hand. This makes for a really good audio presentation to go along with the film’s great video quality.
Bonus Materials are all presented in MPEG-2 standard definition video and Dolby Digital Plus stereo sound.
- “Web-Enabled Features” are included on this release. They allow you to download exclusive content like on past titles from Universal on HD DVD that had this feature. Sadly nothing associated with this particular film can be found in the downloadable content found here. It’s all Universal releases and such, not that this is a bad thing. I just wish they would have done like “Knocked Up” and featured movie related downloadable material like extra deleted scenes, etc.
- Deleted Scenes” (23 minutes) are presented sadly in a 4:3 cropped box and not properly in the 16:9 aspect ratio they were obviously shot. These do prove to be rather lengthy and actually worth watching. I just wish they would have presented them in the correct aspect ratio, this always seems to happen with bonus materials ported over from the original DVD.
- “French Beans” (11 minutes) is presented in 16:9 (Widescreen) aspect ratio. In fact all bonus materials from here on out are. This featurette serves as a “making of” for the film.
- “Beans in Cannes” (5 minute) focuses on the scene in the film at the “Cannes Film Festival.” Actor Willem Dafoe does a great interview here.
- “The Human Bean” (6 minutes) showcases (pays tribute basically) to the character “Mr. Bean” and Rowan Atkinson, the comedic genius of a man who portrays him. All the cast and filmmakers offer interviews here, namely again Actor Willem Dafoe who seems to have a lot of respect for both Atkinson and the character. We finally get a nice little interview with the man himself, Rowan Atkinson who discusses taking on the role of “Bean” again in another motion picture. This is sure to prove worth watching to both new and old fans.
The bonus materials found here are just ports over from the DVD release of the film and only presented in standard definition. The only real HD DVD exclusive feature comes in the form of “Web-Enabled” which doesn’t even deliver anything related to the film here but instead related to the Studio. I’m not saying that “Web-Enabled” shouldn’t have been used, I’m just saying it could have been used better.
— Review written by Justin Sluss
One Response to “Mr. Bean’s Holiday – HD DVD”
Sorry don’t mean to post on a old review but the 2 films did really well in theaters, they both grossed in $230 million worldwide in theaters alone. I can agree with you on the Video Quality thing though, the film was shot in some pretty nice locations which makes for some good demo material. The extras were disappointing, aside from the web enabled feature that didn’t live long enough to get used the extras are the same as those found on the other side of the disc!
By Mehar on Jul 19, 2008