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Just when the
French had been forgiven by giving us Amelie,
they send this tosh to Hollywood.
Nigel
Bell
Les Visiteurs
was, before last years Amelie, one of France's top grossing
films.
Hardly surprising
then that America would want to get it's paws on it.
They needn't have
bothered. Even using the same director and principal stars, Just
Visiting is a complete waste of time with tired jokes and the
criminal use of acting talent like Reno.
The plot
Thibault of Malfete (Reno) arrives from France to marry Princess
Rosalind (Applegate) but a mix up with some witches' potion leads
to him accidentally killing his wife to be.
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| And to
think, once I was in talked about films like A Clockwork Orange
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Fear not, for
an English wizard (McDowell) can send Malfete and his squire (Clavier)
back in time to make sure the mix up never occurred.
Unfortunately,
one of the ingredients to the potion is missed and our heroes are
sent from the 12th to 21st century Chicago.
From this point
the film becomes utterly forgetful.
The verdict
Just Visiting comes across as a poor man's version of Crocodile
Dundee mixed with an unfunny Blackadder.
Instead of an
Australian from the outback we have two members of medieval society
coming to grips with motorcars and flushing toilets (yes they think
it's a sink!)
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| Medieval
man rides round 21st century Chicago on horseback. How droll. |
Clavier is one
of the script writers, but his character is a pale interpretation
of Tony Robinson's Baldrick.
In an era of top
drawer special effects those in Just Visiting come across
as basic.
Jokes are predictable
and unfunny. There's slapstick in the kitchen, a scene where our
heroes see a family on TV, think they're trapped and smash the television
to free them. Humouress...hmmm.
The script has
holes aplenty, the ending is corny beyond extreme and to top it
all we have the message of the American dream, freedom and democracy
rammed down our throats.
Rent Blackadder
instead.
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