R is for Rowan Atkinson

[mandysee_mandydo]

Rowan Atkinson is a comedic genius. It is truly astounding how well he can convey so much with simple body language and motion and so few words through Mr. Bean and also his character in the movie Rat Race. The influence Charlie Chaplin had on his comedy is very apparent. I also thoroughly enjoy his dark, dry wit apparent in the Blackadder series and his stand-up material.

I was extremely disappointed in the first Bean movie because it was very much America taking something British and ruining it by assuming Americans were too dumb to enjoy it, plus adding in the assumption that no one had seen Mr. Bean here and so most of the gags were watered down retellings of the episodes. Maybe I just watched too much PBS growing up? *shrug* I was very much fond of the new Bean movie because they let Rowan Atkinson write a whole new Bean story as a feature length film, which is precisely what a Bean movie should be. It was like watching a much longer, bigger budget Bean episode, which made me very, very happy.

Comments

[vireo-blues.livejournal.com]

I loved him in Rat Race too! (that whole movie is a bundle of joy...) I actually haven't seen much Mr. bean, but I'm thinking I probably should!

[srturtle.livejournal.com]

Oh most assuredly! Mr. Bean is a hilarious character. I wish we had some to show you. Maybe we could find some online while your visiting or something. Mr. Bean is kinda like the Rat Race character, only more clean-cut, less verbal, morally ambiguous and very clumsy.

[quantumswordsmn.livejournal.com]

Bah, give me Black Adder (whatever number you please) instead. Bean is OK, but BA is just full of awesomeness

[srturtle.livejournal.com]

I like both equally, but for very different reasons. I love how the various incarnations of Black Adder are so different from each other, yet with that same underlying borderline sociopath behavior.