It's a safe bet that kids will eat up this latest slice of slapstick, in which Mr Bean's struggle to take a relaxing French holiday is thwarted by a lost child, a hungry vending machine, an egomaniac film director (a campy Willem Dafoe) and the intricacies of Gallic public transport. However, parents who sat stony-faced through the original Bean are in fora surprise: from an adult perspective, Mr Bean's Holiday is not all that bad.

It's hard to explain the appeal of Mr Bean. At firstglance, he seems to be moulded from the primordial clay of nightmares: a leering man-child with a body like a tangle of tweed-coated pipe cleaners and the gurning, window-licking countenance of a suburban sex offender. It's a testament to Rowan Atkinson's skill that, by the end of the film he seems almostcuddly.

Perhaps it is the influence of Simon McBurney (of Theatre de Complicite) on the script, or the absence of Mel Smith as director. For whatever reason, the flatulent

humour of the first film has given way to pure physical comedy. There's nothing in his pratfalls to match the brilliance of, say, Harold Lloyd, but Atkinson is still an inspired physical comedian - as he demonstrates in a busking

sequence that moves seamlessly from Shaggy to high opera. A pity they didn't go with the original title, French Bean.

Source: Internet