An Overcooked Pile of Bean

My last movie of the summer...my final hurrah to close out this year's list...I wanted to go out with a bang...I thought that a movie with an old favourite was a safe bet.

Well...I was wrong...sadly.

After watching Mr. Bean's Holiday, it has become painfully obvious that the once fresh, hilarious, and tasty Mr. Bean has grown old and stale. The once lovable character who we adore because of his bumbling pantomime way of over-complicating simple tasks has been reduced to a thoughtless rude but still oblivious bumbling fool. In Bean's hey-day, Rowan Atkinson successfully made this character endearing but those moments are few and far between here.

The movie follows Mr. Bean on his trip to Cannes where he meets this boy on a train who's lost his dad (thanks to the inconsiderate mishaps of Bean). The story follows Bean trying to reunite the kid to his father who's also a judge at the Cannes Film Festival. All the while Bean videos every misstep on a digital video camera he's won (with the world's LARGEST memory card I gather...since he's videotaping several days straight).

Not to say there aren't some sweet funny parts in the movie. Two notables are the ending when his video is spliced into an big headed director's (Willem Dafoe of Spiderman's Goblin fame) indy film, and when Bean is dancing in a farmer's market to raise money to get him and the kid to Cannes.

However, Mr. Bean is better served in small doses and doesn't translate well on the big screen. Mr. Bean's Holiday is still a better flic than his last horrendous one in the 90's, but if you want to see Mr. Bean in his prime, take the time and watch some of his classic shorts...I'd recommend the Christmas one where he gets his head caught in a turkey...exactly how I'd like to remember him.

4.2 cans of Bean out of 10.

PS To make up for this poor last movie, I'm going back to watch Rush Hour 3...it couldn't be any worse right?

The Ultimate: Bourne or not to Bourne?

So it's usually a bad idea to jump into a movie series third one in. You get this feeling of "WTF?" and feel like you're spending the whole movie catching up.

That's what I felt like in this third installment of the Bourne series. This isn't a bad thing...just a fault of my own going in because this is one heck of a crazy action movie. Now let me take you back a few years (cue jazzy background music):

The year 2002...or 2003...forget which. The location...my living room in Brampton, Ontario. Nineteen floors up on a crisp spring evening. I pop in the first Bourne movie: The Bourne Identity. I don't do this because I thought the previews were intriguing. No. I wasn't a Matt Damon fan...and I couldn't take him seriously as an action star after his affiliation with Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, and Dogma). I marked him as a talented yet moderately interesting celebrity. No...Matt Damon was not the reason I popped in the movie. I put it in because I loved the book. I enjoyed the premise of a guy waking up with no memory but all these skills to survive and thwart enemies. A book I read back in high school after I picked up an old 1970's copy at a used book store.
So I start to watch and find myself wondering if they should've renamed the movie the "Bored Identity". I didn't even finish the first one.
Because of this I skipped Bourne Supremacy and planned on skipping this one too.

Back to present: A couple good friends invite us out to see it. Their enthusiasm was tough to dismiss...maybe I was wrong about these movies?

The verdict: Exceptionally entertaining. Intense action. And Matt Damon can pull off a bonafide action star...I even thought at one point that Jason Bourne would be the one person on Earth capable of out bad-assing Jack Bauer of 24...and that's a level I don't through around lightly (See my review on Live Free or Die Hard).

One recommendation though: Either watch the other two movies or read the books before going in. You don't want to play catch up for this one. But even if you haven't followed the story up to this one, at least you'll be entertained with action sequences with an intensity the likes of which you've never seen.

Now excuse me while I go a borrow Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Identity to give those a second try...

7.6 memory flashbacks out of 10 (For those who hadn't seen the previous two movies)

8.5 overthrown conspirators out of 10 (For those who have)

Avg: 8.05 Matt Damon grimaces out of 10

SUPERBAD...or Knocked Up: The Prequel

12:40am Monday, Aug 20, 2007 | Edit Note | Delete

To call "Superbad" this generation's "American Pie" is to be generous...but there are a LOT of similarities...and that doesn't mean this isn't funny. Superbad is a freakin' riot! I would put it on the same level as Knocked Up but with good reason: it's written by the same guy, Seth Rogan.

As matter of fact, the main character's in both movies (Ben played by Seth Rogan in "Knocked up"; and Seth played by Jonah Hill as a young Seth Rogan in "Superbad") could be the same guy...except one is a juvenile, pot smoking, beer guzzling, sex loving partier...and the other is in Superbad (Hey-oooo!!!).

Seriously, Superbad has scenes that could rival American Pie in hilarity (anything involving McLovin is brilliant), grossness (the er...not so subtle nod to a lady's monthlies), and one scene that steals the show (the thing I'd like to call "The Penis Montage").

However, there's a lot of heart in this movie. Behind all the crassness of being a teen trying to get drunk and laid, this is a buddy movie between two best friends. A sort of Thelma and Louise for teenage guys. Seth (the character) and Evan (his best friend) engage in an adventure to overcome young awkwardness around girls and strive for that holy grail. Do they get there? You've got to watch the movie.

Like in Knocked Up (and American Pie), there are a lot of strong female characters from Evan's crush, Becca, to Seth's target, Jules, as the girl throwing the party. These aren't cookie cutter girls just thrown in for plot. They're both nice rounded characters.

The one character that steals the show is McLovin (real name: Ed Fogel) played by Chris Mintz-Plasse. Every scene he is in is brilliant. He's the modern day Garth Algar thrown into a situation where he has to overcome his shy awkwardness and win the day (aka get booze). He shares most of his scenes with two hilarious and inept cops (played by Seth Rogan and SNL's Bill Hader) who use McLovin to recapture their youth one last time.

Superbad and Knocked Up could be completely interchangeable on the humour level. Both are great funny movies. What would make one funnier than the other is your demographic: if you're still in high school or university or still likes to party, Superbad is funnier. If you're a little older or about to start a family, Knocked Up would be your cup of tea. Still either way, neither one of them should be for kids...and you can't lose with either one.

8.5 McLovins out of 10