40
When Atkinson tries to stretch familiar Beanisms into 80 minutes, the results are mostly unsatisfying.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
San Francisco Examiner by Barbara Shulgasser
To enumerate exactly how Bean messes up would be to expose the silliness of this movie, and since Bean's humor is terribly silly, rather, wonderfully silly, there isn't much point in going into detail.
60
Whatever the reason, Bean saddles Atkinson with a story that hangs on him like a dead weight and a filmmaking style that surrounds him like dead air.
70
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
The movie feels stretched out and thin.
63
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
While Bean branches out from the format developed for the television series, it remains faithful to the concepts and constructs that led to its success.
80
The New York Times by Lawrence Van Gelder
But while rooted in British sensibilities, Bean is not to be confused with a Noel Coward comedy. Not every gag in Bean succeeds, but compared with most comedies, this one is a keeper.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Bean falls well short of a work of genius. Indeed, the unbearable slightness of Bean feels like nothing so much as a betrayal of the television series on which it is based.
40
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
There are only so many pratfalls you can string together sans storyline and keep a ball like this rolling, and unfortunately, too many of Bean's schticks were old news by the time they first aired on PBS.
75
San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Stack
Some of the middle section of Bean sags, but most of the film zips along with a series of comic setups, played like skits, that emphasize Bean's klutziness, his feeble mentality, his childlike, me-too urges.
63
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
There are many moments here that are very funny, but the film as a whole is a bit too long.