Les Couloirs du temps : Les Visiteurs II

"The Visitors II" is a direct sequel to the first film and it continues the story in the same manner, but it doesn't bring anything new and fresh and just recycles the original. Jean Reno and Christian Clavier are expectedly good, and in all other aspects, the movie is decent but lame. I was bored.

5/10

Les Visiteurs (1993) is probably my favorite French movie; I've watched it loads of times and I think the entertainment value is through the roof. It's a movie that does nothing wrong, and I have awarded it a coveted "10" rating.

It was only a month ago that I learned of the existence of the somewhat low-profile 1998 sequel, Couloirs du Temp. I scrambled to find it, and now I have. I was afraid it might be terrible (as most of the few user comments here are certainly pretty hard on it), but to my delight it was pretty damn good. Of course not in league with the original, and several plot points were rather contrived, and a number of the gags went a bit out of hand, but overall I had a great time watching it. There were lots of laughs, lots of crazy situations, and lots of really good ideas. This sequel afforded us the chance to get to know Cousin Hube's side of the family, which I thought was brilliant. I think most of the inspiration and fun from the first movie were excellently maintained here, and I was impressed with the substance and complexity of the story. And I loved the way the soundtrack riffed the "Back To The Future" theme!

I almost want to rate this sequel an "8", but several factors contribute to its ending up a "7". Some of the plot developments weren't great, and the end in particular seemed to just complicate matters unnecessarily, while not being especially intriguing.

Probably the single biggest thing that was wrong with this movie was that Hube's fiancée was played by a different actress than in the first movie. This was a real shame, I thought.

Thus, a 7 out of 10 rating, but an entertaining and hilarious movie none the less! Absolutely recommended for fans of the original.

The Visiteurs 1 is one of my preferred, the sequel is one of the few movies I just cannot keep watching (one of others being Borat). Enough was said by the other members above, I want to add 'primitive'. The degeneration I suspect lies in somewhat similar to Wertmuller's Swept Away http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073817/ that is a masterpiece (but a local one, you have to know well Italy - or Mediterranean to appreciate it) vs Guy Ritchie's & Madonna's Swept Away http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291502/ I've seen few others (e.g. acting Banderas) remakes / sequels degeneration. Apart from personal tastes / what editor must not do, why do Americans remake already nice movies? I clearly felt this influence (and later read about Visiteurs 3) at the beginning and random jumping in Visitors II.

Les Visiteurs, the first movie about the medieval time travelers was actually funny. I like Jean Reno as an actor, but there was more. There were unexpected twists, funny situations and of course plain absurdness, that would remind you a little bit of Louis de Funes.

Now this sequel has the same characters, the same actors in great part and the same time traveling. The plot changes a little, since the characters now are supposed to be experienced time travelers. So they jump up and down in history, without paying any attention to the fact that it keeps getting absurder as you advance in the movie. The duke, Jean Reno, tries to keep the whole thing together with his playing, but his character has been emptied, so there's not a lot he can do to save the film.

Now the duke's slave/helper, he has really all the attention. The movie is merely about him and his being clumsy / annoying / stupid or whatever he was supposed to be. Fact is; this character tries to produce the laughter from the audience, but he does not succeed. It is as if someone was telling you a really very very bad joke, you already know, but he insists on telling that joke till the end, adding details, to make your suffering a little longer.

If you liked Les Visiteurs, do not spoil the taste in your mouth with the sequel. If you didn't like Les Visiteurs, you would never consider seeing the sequel. If you liked this sequel... well, I suppose you still need to see a lot of movies.

Nice slapstick comedy. Has the usual flaw of this genre: May get tedious, exhaust the viewer. In flaws and jokes comparable to Leslie Nielson films, but French, which is a change as the humor is a bit different. Builds a nice whole with part 1, and hopefully part 3 in the future. Because of story, gags and differing style, recommended.