Just Visiting (2001)

This movie is just plain hilarious. My boyfriend and I bought this one ASAP after renting it from the library, and we are quoting it constantly. (Cheese, very good cheese! Hello, Big Nose! ALL the forest is in the small wheel! Thank you, Master!) Sure, the plot is outlandish, but Reno and Clavier do an amazing job of conveying what it would be like to be transported from the 12th to the 21st century. The actors are great, the story is great, there's no sex, no violence, only one curse word, and what I found to be only two very short, slightly lame moments in an endless parade of fun. I can't wait to watch it with my teenage nieces. I described it to them, and they're already laughing. The french version was fun, too, but hearing the actors speak English in their wacky french accents makes it that much more fun.

Fmovies: We loved this movie. Totally hilarious. Loved how the characters react to 21st century life style and brought with them their hilarious habits and way of life from the past. This movie is a must see!! We rented it and watched it five times in five days. Highly recommended for a great laugh! Andre is very funny and it is great to see him realize that he can be a free man and finally stand up for himself. It helps us realize how inhumane the treatment of "slaves" were in ancient history. Helps us realize how much we take for granted in the 21st century too. This movie is like a mix between Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail and Napoleon Dynamite, at least that is what type of satirical humor it reminds me of and I think both of those movies are absolutely hilarious as well, the kind that you like to watch again and again and find yourself quoting over and over and laughing. It was a great movie!!

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.

Just Visiting fmovies. Just Visiting is an American remake (starring the same two main characters) of the excellent French "Les Visiteurs" from 1993. The remake is of course not on par with the original, which is a perfect comedy. The U.S. version is much duller, and marred by several things, such as Jean Reno being too old to successfully reprise his role, and many jokes simply not being very funny.

It gains, however, on two important counts. First, Malcolm McDowell's wizard, who has a much larger and more interesting part in this movie than the original wizard did in the first movie. Second, Christina Applegate's character. She is surprisingly good, and a delight to watch. She's never been a terrible actress, but here she's extraordinary. She plays a kind of good-hearted, intelligent and yet naive character that, to my knowledge, is quite different from the other characters she's played. Where she's often been an air-head bimbo, here she's genuinely appealing; even endearing.

It still does detract from the movie that, to a great degree, it merely goes through the motions of the original movie, trying to mimic the jokes and japes, and very often failing miserably. Still and all, it's worth watching and is better than it might have been.

I rate this one 7 out of 10. You should see the original, though, which is far more inspired and also gives a great impression of spontaneity. I rate the original version 10 out of 10. It's that good.

You have to watch this one at least twice or more. Some of the humor will escape you the first time. Some of it is almost slapstick, but it gives a very humorous view of some of the culture clashes and learning experiences that could occur if an ancestor from very far back were to accidentally be transferred to our modern times. It is actually very entertaining, and I would highly recommend it. Even children over the age of 10 or so might enjoy it (it mostly pretty unoffensive, but a little gross in some parts), but some of the humor might go over the heads of younger ones (that might actually be good, however).

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).