Willem Dafoe: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Carson Clay - Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)

Successful TV series don't usually make successful films, something which is particularly true of British TV series. There have been a string of disappointly televisual offerings, from older output like Dad's Army and Are You Being Served? to modern dross like Keith Lemon: The Movie. While Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie was nothing like as bad as people expected it to be, few people in their right minds would have wanted a sequel. But back in 2007, that's what we got, complete with another disappointing turn from Dafoe. Mr. Bean's Holiday begins with the title character winning a trip to Cannes in a raffle. Through a series of unfortunate events, he ends up stranded in Paris and has to be make the rest of the journey on foot, accompanied by a young boy called Stefan (Max Baldry). During their journey the pair sabotage a commercial shoot by arthouse director Carston Clay (Dafoe), before turning up at the Cannes Film Festival and hijacking Clay's vanity project, 'Playback Time'. Speaking as a fan of the TV series (and the first film), Mr. Bean's Holiday is a shambolic mess, combining sub-par slapstick with an unintentionally creepy feel. Dafoe's performance could have been a great foil for Rowan Atkinson, but he has no comic timing and is taking his character far too seriously for it to blend in with the set-pieces. It's just one unfunny joke after another, with Dafoe playing it so straight that he kills the momentum. At least we can be thankful that Atkinson chose to retire the character after this outing - although Johnny English is still at large...