Just Visiting (film)

Just Visiting is a 2001 French-American comedy film that is an American remake of the French film Les Visiteurs. It stars Jean Reno, Christina Applegate, Christian Clavier, Malcolm McDowell, Tara Reid, and Bridgette Wilson. It is about a medieval knight and his serf who travel to 21st century Chicago, meeting the knight's descendant.

Unlike the original film, the remake was not successful in either France or the United States.

This was Hollywood Pictures' final production before it folded into the management of its sister company, Touchstone Pictures until Hollywood Pictures released the 2006 horror movie Stay Alive and is one of the very last films to be distributed by it.

Plot summary
The backstory takes place in 12th century England, where Lord Thibault Malféte is about to marry Princess Rosalind, the daughter of the reigning King. At the wedding banquet, by mistake, an enemy known as the Earl of Warwick gives Thibault a potion which makes him hallucinate (and which was actually intended for Rosalind by a witch hired and paid by the Earl), and under its influence, he kills his own bride (rather than her father, as in the French version) believing she is a ferocious monster. While under sentence of death, he asks his servant, André Le Paté (Christian Clavier) to find a wizard (Malcolm McDowell) to help him. The wizard gives him a potion that will send him back to the moment before he killed Princess Rosalind. The incompetent wizard botches the spell, and instead, Thibault and Andre are sent into the 21st century.

They end up in a museum in Chicago where they are arrested by the police. They are rescued by Julia Malféte (Christina Applegate), a museum employee who closely resembles Princess Rosalind. She thinks that Thibault is her distant French cousin who drowned while yachting a couple of years ago. Thibault soon finds out that Julia is descended from his family and realizes he must return to the 12th century to correct the past. Julia introduces them to the modern American style of life where norms from medieval times no longer apply. Before the return to his time, Thibault decides to protect Julia from her money-hungry fiance, Hunter (Matt Ross). Meanwhile, Andre falls for a pretty gardener, Angelique (Tara Reid) who presents him with the world of equal rights for all people.

The wizard realizes his mistake and decides to time travel into the future to help Thibault, who is also getting accustomed to 21st century life. After he finds him, he successfully prepares a potion for returning to the past. André confronts Thibault, that he does not want to return to the 12th century, after Julia convinces Thibault that he should set him free, Thibault agrees. Hunter decides to prevent Thibault by interfering with his plans but Julia finds out his real intentions and breaks up with him. Before he leaves, Thibault tells Julia that she will meet a new and better boyfriend. Then, he and the wizard drink the potion in the museum and return to the past just before the killing of Princess Rosalind. Hunter finds the remainder of the potion which sends him to the 12th century where he is captured. Julia decides to reclaim her ancestral castle, much to the firm's delight, and meets a man named Francois Le Combier, who knows much about her family's history. In the last scene, André and Angelique are seen driving in a hot rod towards Las Vegas, which makes André wonder one thing, who would protect him from the Devil. Angelique simply replies "Hey, at least you got me, babe", to which André happily agrees.

Cast

 * Jean Reno as Thibault
 * Christina Applegate as Rosalind / Julia
 * Christian Clavier as Andre
 * Matt Ross as Hunter
 * Tara Reid as Angelique
 * Bridgette Wilson-Sampras as Amber
 * John Aylward as Byron
 * George Plimpton as Dr. Brady
 * Malcolm McDowell as Wizard
 * Alexis Loret as François

Box office
The film opened at #12 at the North American box office making $2,272,489 USD in its opening weekend.

Reception
The film received generally negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes give the film a score of 33% based on reviews from 78 critics. The site's consensus reads, "This remake of the French comedy Les Visiteurs ends up being a middling, forgettable effort -- not as good as the original."