Well the school holidays are nearly at a close and like most parents I have had to brave the storm of PG rated films that my kids wanted to see. On offer at the movies this autumn was Mr Bean’s Holiday and TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). So which of these appeals to the adult parent that has to sit though these sessions and which one got the kids’ vote?
Mr Bean’s Holiday was typical fare from Rowan Atkinson. Mr Bean wins a holiday to the south of France and along the way his story intertwines with an actress, a director and movie producer’s son who are all headed to Cannes for the film festival. It was funny in parts but most of it had already been seen in the movie trailer. My 10 years old, laughed at Mr Bean’s funny faces and my six year old loved the scene where Mr Bean is in a German uniform doing a funny walk (reminded my of John Cleese and the Dept of Silly Walks). For me, the payoff was the the movie showing at Cannes where the Director (Willem Dafoe) is presenting a vanity film piece that Mr Bean interrupts and replaces his digital recorder footage of his recent holiday whilst the original film’s narration plays in the back ground. The combination is a great success.
“TMNT”, where to start. I remember seeing the original cartoon series a long time ago and did see the original movie (Vanilla Ice and all). Lets just say, that my expectations were low and if my kids weren’t into Tae Kwon Do, I would probably not have bothered to go. Well to my surprise I liked this darker edged version of the turtles. As somewhat of an IT geek, I found the scene where Mikey is suffering through his day job at the IT help desk absolutely priceless (although this humour was lost on the rest of the audience). The animation was excellent and I liked the story and journey of brothers working together and being strong as one. My kids just liked the colour and animation fight scenes.
So which gets the seal of approval. Both were an easy way to spend 90 mins of holiday fun. For my six year old Mr Bean was the best, however my ten year old’s clear vote was with “TMNT”. So which one did Mum enjoy more? Well surprisingly I’d give “TMNT” 3.5 stars because there was enough action to keep me interested and it had a story about team work which appeals to me given my management theory background. “Mr Bean” a close second at 3 stars (mainly because I had seen it all before).
Mr Bean’s Holiday
Director: Steve Bendelack
Rating: 3 stars
TMNT
Director:Kevin Munroe
Ratin: 3.5 stars
