Am I the only one to find Mr Bean just a bit creepy? With his bug-eyes and monosyllabic grunts, I've always felt that there's something a little bit care-in-the-community about him.

Maybe it's the transition to the big screen. On TV he's just about the right size to be bearable but projected onto the movie screen, he just becomes that bit too freaky.

Having said that, once you get past the slight creep factor of the main character, there is much to like in Mr Bean's Holiday.

The movie is essentially a road trip as Bean wins a raffle prize of a trip to Cannes and so sets off across France in pursuit of his dreams of the perfect beach.

Some of the parallels are obvious - Mr Hulot's Holiday springs to mind and slight comparisons can be also be made to Planes, Trains and Automobiles in the manic combination of transport disasters.

The predictable set-pieces are all here - wrestling with unfamiliar foreign food, the perils of vending machines etc. But this time around they only serve to raise a wry smile rather than the belly-laughs required.

But where Mr Bean's Holiday redeems itself is in the heart that has also been injected into the film. After he is forced to look after a young French boy who Bean is responsible for separating from his father, our hero is given an emotional arc that develops him slightly beyond the one-dimensional slapstick character of old.

The definite highpoint of the movie is an impromptu busking scene when the pair are forced to improvise wildly when find themselves hungry and penniless on the streets. And it's the human stakes behind their attempts that give the scene its impact.

While the film ends on a somewhat predictable note, it does leave you with one last great Buster Keaton-esque sight gag and an ensemble singalong that is actually strangely appropriate.

And indeed by the film's close, even those who find Mr Bean a little creepy would no doubt have warmed to him and applaud his last bow on the beach.