Word: screens
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...moves with an awkwardness that can only be described as graceful--an uncoordinated elan, a lithe clutziness. These qualities still exist in the movie, fortunately, but they have been dumbed down. There is more bathroom humor than there ever was in the TV show, and Bean must share the screen with the far less inspired antics of many more characters than he would interact with before. Despite these obstacles, there are definitely some quality moments of vintage Bean schtick, and the comic genius of Atkinson does manage to shine through the otherwise ubiquitous mush...
...show, tones down a lot of Atkinson's lunacy by making it all very predictable. The movie elicits a constant and varied selection of groans and muffled supplications from the audience as they realize the ridiculousness bearing down on Bean three or four steps ahead of the actual on-screen action...
...leaving them unwitting and unexplored as per the show--also turns out to be a mistake. The movie makes viewers obliged to feel sorry for them, a surefire way to kill the fun. Bean's curator host is incredibly whiny and annoying, and quite undeserving of all the screen time he soaks up. MacNicol, whom one wants to strangle, is straight out of the generic fretting and put-upon straightman mold, and his presence truly cheapens Atkinson's admirable efforts...
...truly diabolical New York law firm that snags Keanu Reeves' hotshot Southern lawyer and quickly enmeshes him in a half-kinky, half-campy world of sin and decadence. Borrowing from The Firm and Rosemary's Baby without quite matching either, it tends to flag whenever Pacino's off screen. Fortunately, he's never away for long and treats us to a devilishy good time with his rip-roaringly over-the-top antics...
...stereotypes is evidently unintentional. "People are not good guys or bad guys," Costa-Gavras says. "Nobody's an angel." Perhaps, but some of them certainly come off better than others in the world of Mad City. Travolta's Baily is the sweetest, most lovable terrorist ever created for the screen: a made-to-order innocent for the media to crucify. His childlike naivete is charming at first, but after a while, one begins to wonder if he could successfully floss his teeth without injuring himself. In short, Sam Baily is just a little too vulnerable. The film might have been...