Os Viajantes do Tempo

One of the funniest of the offbeat, little advertised movies I enjoy the most. Underrated and under appreciated by American audiences, slowly making its way to cult status, this tale of a French nobleman and time travel, at the hands of a slightly daffy sorcerer, played by Malcolm McDowell takes place mostly in Chicago. A twist on the "I am my own Grandfather" theme brings the nobleman face to face with distant Granddaughter, who he saves from a decision she would have lived to regret. This is a remake of the French film, "Les Visiteurs". Jean Reno shows his talent for comedy and wit. Thankfully he and Christian Clavier teamed up for the remake. Clavier was allowed to develop a little in the American version. The rest of the cast are enjoyable, and bring together a tight, clean story. Worth the video rental. Good clean fun.

Whenever a foreign film is good enough for the american film industry to want to copy it they usually botch the job by trying to americanize it. If you have ever seen the original, "Les Visiteurs" then you probably know what I am talking about. This american version would have done well to stick to the original story. It's unfortunate that the the writer (also the original's director) tried to "fix" something that wasn't broke.

Just Visiting is an American remake (starring the same two main characters) of the excellent French "Les Visiteurs" from 1993. The remake is of course not on par with the original, which is a perfect comedy. The U.S. version is much duller, and marred by several things, such as Jean Reno being too old to successfully reprise his role, and many jokes simply not being very funny.

It gains, however, on two important counts. First, Malcolm McDowell's wizard, who has a much larger and more interesting part in this movie than the original wizard did in the first movie. Second, Christina Applegate's character. She is surprisingly good, and a delight to watch. She's never been a terrible actress, but here she's extraordinary. She plays a kind of good-hearted, intelligent and yet naive character that, to my knowledge, is quite different from the other characters she's played. Where she's often been an air-head bimbo, here she's genuinely appealing; even endearing.

It still does detract from the movie that, to a great degree, it merely goes through the motions of the original movie, trying to mimic the jokes and japes, and very often failing miserably. Still and all, it's worth watching and is better than it might have been.

I rate this one 7 out of 10. You should see the original, though, which is far more inspired and also gives a great impression of spontaneity. I rate the original version 10 out of 10. It's that good.

My brother and I went to this movie and we were the only people in the theater. We laughed so hard I had to go outside of the theater. I thought I was going to pee in my pants it was so funny. I can't say enough about it. Leave your high falutin' film-going skills at the door and laugh. Go. Jean Reno is great both as a romantic character and as a comedian, but when you think of Leon or Ronin, you remember that he could definitely play for laughs. Christian Clavier is hilarious and excellent comedic actor who is unknown to the general US public. Finally, Applegate does some good work playing the straight man/woman. Finally, what was an interesting approach was to take a successful foreign comedy and redo it in the USA. But, they used the same director and actors. It translated well which is unusual for comedies- much harder to cross cultures.

All the warning signs were there. Jean Reno already made a perfectly good version of this film in 1993. Unfortunately, Americans do not like subtitles or films set outside their own country, so Just Visiting was conceived, chiefly with the aim of milking a few more dollars from the original idea.

Unfortunately, the humour is not as good, the acting of the US supporting cast is not as good, and the plot makes far less sense than the original. Why would he be transported to Chicago? What are the odds his descendant lives in Chicago? The original was much more plausible - it was set in the same geographical area, so meeting one's descendants is not so ridiculous, and it created plenty of humour based on Sir Godefroy's shock to learn that his castle was now owned by the descendant of his moronic lackey, whereas his descendant lived in a modest 3 bedroom house.

For goodness sake, save your ticket money and get the original French version "Les Visiteurs" on video. It is a far better film.