Cast: Jean Reno, Christian Clavier, Christina Applegate, Tara Reid, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Malcolm McDowell, Matt Ross
Director: Jean-Marie Poiré
Screnplay: Christian Clavier & Jean-Marie Poiré & John Hughes, based on the screenplay Les Visiteurs by Jean-Marie Poiré and Christian Clavier
Cinematography: Ueli Steiger
Music: John Powell
U.S. Distributor: Hollywood Pictures
It's widely said that visitors, like fish, stink after three days. In this movie, it takes a lot less time for the stench to start. Just Visiting? Go home.
Just Visiting is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of forgettable comedies that is notable only for a few funny moments, the opportunity to watch Christina Applegate play a bookish character, and the chance to see perpetual bad guy Malcolm McDowell dress up like Fu Manchu in a cowboy outfit. The film relies on a combination of toilet humor (some of it literally so) and fish-out-of-water comedy for most of its laughs. The result comes across like a scatologically focused Crocodile Dundee crossed with Time Bandits. Even respected international actor Jean Reno (The Professional) acting like an idiot can't redeem Just Visiting.
The film opens in 12th century England, where brave Count Thibault (Jean Reno), looking and acting like a refugee from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, is set to marry the love of his life, Rosalind (Christina Applegate). Unfortunately, he runs afoul of witchcraft and stands accused of killing his betrothed. Before he can be executed, the local wizard (Malcolm McDowell) casts a spell to send the Count and his faithful-but-smelly servant, Andre (Christian Clavier), back in time to the moment immediately preceding the murder. Unfortunately, the spell misfires, and the intrepid duo ends up in Chicago, circa 2000. There, in addition to battling strange customs and fearsome monsters (like cars), they must search for a way back home (sort of like Ash in Army of Darkness, only in reverse). They are aided in their search by the Count's great-great-great-...-granddaughter, Julia (also Applegate), who eventually accepts their story.
Just Visiting is an English-language remake of the 1993 French farce, Les Visiteurs. That movie was a huge hit in France, out-grossing all of the big American imports for the year (including Jurassic Park). Miramax Films, smelling a cross-over hit, immediately snapped up the rights, then couldn't figure out how to sell the film. Mel Brooks was brought in to supervise a dubbed version, which turned out to be so bad that it was deemed unreleasable. Finally, in mid-1996, after sitting in storage for nearly three years, Les Visiteurs was dumped unceremoniously into a limited art-house release. Shortly thereafter, Disney decided to sink some money into a remake.
This is not a case of a remake butchering the intent of the original. Les Visiteurs was a least-common-denominator comedy, and Just Visiting follows faithfully in its footsteps. Both can boast a few amusing moments, but the impulse for unbridled laughter will be confined to those who think the sight of someone washing in a toilet is hilarious. Thrown in for good measure, we get plenty of vomit, flatulence, and people nibbling on "mints from the blue fountain" (those solid deodorizers found in public urinals). As far as films about walking anachronisms go, this one might have seemed a little fresher if it had arrived before the aforementioned Crocodile Dundee, which used many of the same conventions in a more clever way several years earlier. (The first Paul Hogan film pre-dated Les Visiteurs by seven years. Ironically, the third Crocodile Dundee will reach theaters two weeks after Just Visiting.) Of course, Crocodile Dundee had characters worth caring about; that's one critical element absent from Just Visiting, which is populated by one-dimensional caricatures.
Considering the number of returning cast and crew members from Les Visiteurs, it's no surprise that Just Visiting contains a strong flavor of the original. The director, Jean-Marie Poiré, is back. The screenplay is credited to Poiré and Christian Clavier (who wrote Les Visiteurs), with an assist from John Hughes (presumably brought on board to increase the level of physical comedy). Jean Reno and Clavier reprise their roles as the heroic knight and his less-than-heroic sidekick. New to the English-language version are Christina Applegate, made up to look as dowdy as possible; Matt Ross in the tired role of the weasel-like, unfaithful boyfriend; Tara Reid as the pretty gardener who inexplicably falls for Andre; and Brigette Wilson-Sampras, who spends most of the time rolling around on a desk exposing her cleavage. Then there's Malcolm McDowell, who seems to be having a jolly old time as a wizard unleashed in modern-day Chicago.
The one thing that has improved since Les Visiteurs is the quality of the special effects. With the leaps made in digital technology since 1993 (not to mention the bigger budget), the movie can afford a ferocious, real-looking dragon and an army of twisted monstrosities. But a few nice visuals can't camouflage the basic deficiencies of a comedy that wants to be uproarious and endearing, and ends up being neither. When Les Visiteurs flopped on this side of the Atlantic, the most common explanation I heard was that French comedy "doesn't translate." I suppose this must be true - even with the subtitles vanished, there's very little to laugh at here.
© 2001 James Berardinelli