Bean Conquers Columbia! ***1/2 by Michael Kaplan, Special Correspondent Fans of British TV comedy need no introduction to Mr. Bean, the popeyed, clueless character portrayed by Rowan Atkinson. His movie can be summed up as follows: if you like Bean on the little screen, you'll like him on the big screen. The movie is a lot like one of his TV episodes, only with something resembling a plot thrown in. Bean is an art museum employee who, because his co-workers can't stand him, gets shipped off to Los Angeles on assignment. His task is to represent his country at the unveiling of "Whistler's Mother" at an L.A. gallery. Alright, enough with the Ebert stuff. You should go see this movie because it's every bit as immature, stupid, ridiculous and yet funny as the TV show. We don't learn any more about Bean--no flashbacks to Bean's childhood, no clues about his first name, no info about his family (other than Teddy, of course). Actually, Teddy gets short shrift; he only shows up for a minute at the end. What we get is a lot of set-ups for Bean to act like Bean. Lorie found some of it excruciating--you know how Bean has a tendency to drag things out. But there's also plenty of non-painful parts, as well. You'll recognize at least one of the shticks, which he recycled from the TV show, but almost everything was new to me. For the most part, it's quite funny.

Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/bean.php3 on line 37 Warning: include(http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/bean.php3 on line 37 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/bean.php3 on line 37

Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/bean.php3 on line 40

Warning: include(http://www.myenvoy.com/movies/bottom.html) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/bean.php3 on line 40

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.myenvoy.com/movies/bottom.html' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/bean.php3 on line 40