Just Visiting (2001) Hollywood Pictures/Comedy-Fantasy RT: 88 minutes Rated PG-13 (violence, crude humor) Director: Jean-Marie Poire (credited as Jean-Marie Gaubert) Screenplay: Jean-Marie Poire, Christian Clavier and John Hughes Music: John Powell Cinematography: Ueli Steiger Release date: April 6, 2001 (US) Cast: Jean Reno, Christina Applegate, Christian Clavier, Matthew Ross, Tara Reid, Malcolm McDowell, Bridgette Wilson, John Aylward, George Plimpton. Box Office: $16.1M (US)
Rating: ***
I have never seen Les Visiteurs, the 1993 French-language comedy upon which Just Visiting is based. It’s an Americanized remake of a movie that was a huge box office hit in its home country. This usually spells trouble (Pure Luck and Father’s Day anyone?), but not this time.
In Just Visiting, a pair from 12th century France gets magically transported to 21st century Chicago. It’s your basic fish-out-of-water story with two very confused men attempting to make sense of a time and place totally alien to them. It’s silly and juvenile, but unlike most comedies of its time, it doesn’t automatically go for the gag reflex with gross jokes about bodily fluids and genitalia. Oh, it has its share of rude humor (e.g. a character ends up face-down in a pile of horse manure), but it’s not its sole reason for being. Behind all the shtick is a somewhat sweet love story about the lengths to which a man will go to be with his true love, even if it involves time travel.
Count Thibault Malfete (Reno, Leon the Professional) is all set to marry Princess Rosalind (Applegate, Anchorman) when the ugly hand of fate shows itself in the form of a jealous rival who poisons Malfete causing him to murder his beloved. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
While awaiting execution, Malfete orders his servant Andre (Clavier, Asterix and Obelix) to find a wizard (McDowell, A Clockwork Orange) who can send him back to the moment right before he killed Rosalind. Instead, the incompetent enchanter sends him and Andre into the 21st century where they encounter Julia (Applegate), a descendent of Malfete (a however many great granddaughter). He needs to get back to his own time, but finding a wizard in 2001 Chicago is no easy task.
Furthermore, Malfete’s shocked to learn that certain things from medieval times, the way he treats his servant in particular, are no longer acceptable. Chivalry, on the other hand, is still alive and well. The count takes it on himself to protect Julia from her condescending fiancé (Ross, American Psycho) who’s only interested in her wealth. Andre meets and falls in love with Angelique (Reid, Josie and the Pussycats), a sweet girl who encourages him to stand up to his master.
From start to finish, Just Visiting retains its spirit of goofiness with plenty of slapstick humor and cartoonish characters. I don’t really understand all the bad reviews it got. Okay, so it’s not all that well-made. It’s kind of slapdash. The special effects are cheesy. But it’s just so much fun! I can’t, in all good consciousness, knock a movie in which a medieval knight boards the Chicago El on horseback. You’d expect something like that in New York, but Chicago?
Reno and Clavier, reprising their roles from the French-language original, make a funny pair. Applegate has a way of maintaining a sense of dignity no matter what’s going on around her. Reid is cute as kindly Angelique. McDowell has a few funny scenes as the inept wizard who comes to Chicago to fix his mistake. Speaking of the Windy City, writer-director Jean-Marie Poire (who also directed the French original) makes great use of the city’s locations although I suspect that has more to do with co-writer John Hughes (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).
I suppose the most important thing about Just Visiting is that it’s funny. It has all the expected jokes one expects from a time travel/fish-out-of-water comedy. For example, Malfete and Andre get seriously sick on their first car ride. Malfete screams for the driver to slow down even though he’s only crawling along at 20mph. That’s right before they both puke out the window. It’s such a good-natured movie; you don’t mind the recycled gags. It works better than most American remakes of foreign comedies because the material translates well. It’s the kind of movie you watch if you want to shut off your brain for a couple of hours.
