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.

My god, I saw this movie yesterday and I'm still laughing at some of the scenes as I recall them from my memory. This was a hilarious light-hearted movie, perfect (in my opinion) for any sense of humour. It is definitly worth seeing (I saw it on The Movie Network). Perfect for gatherings and general good times.

Four stars on the VitalBird scale. (****) (out of 5, not 10).

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.

Many of the comments here are the usual gripes about remakes. Well, I've never seen "Les Visiteurs" so I'm just looking at this film on its own, and I must say that I was greatly entertained.

Of course, it's a lightweight plot, but Reno and Clavier sink their teeth into the time-travel jokes and manage to be endearing as well as thoroughly crazy. (Especially Clavier, whose scenes among the rich folks reminded me a lot of the Three Stooges' many dinners with the snobs.) Christina Applegate is sincere and appealing, her boyfriend and his bimbo are appalling, and the Chicago scenery is GREAT! (I have to admit my prejudice in that regard, having lived there for many years.) Considering that the remake was done by the men who made the original film, what's the problem? Think of what it would have been like if it starred Adam Sandler and David Spade, for instance. Zut alors!

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.