Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Jean Reno, Christian Clavier, Christina Applegate, Tara Reid, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras
Director: Jean-Marie Poire
A US remake of the 1993 French hit LES VISITEURS, JUST VISITING is an enjoyable but completely undemanding time-travel comedy.
Medieval nobleman Count Thibault of Malfete (Jean Reno) uses a Wizard’s (Malcolm McDowell) potion to travel back in time to avert a tragedy involving his new bride on the eve of their wedding. Only instead of travelling back in time both he and his squire Andre (Christian Clavier) travel forward to modern day Chicago where they meet Thibault’s descendant Julia (Christina Applegate).
Julia is about to sell all of her inherited property under the influence of her evil fiance Hunter (Matt Ross) who is in turn motivated by his scheming girlfriend Amber (Brigette Wilson-Sampras).
Thibault and his squire, both completely overwhelmed and confused in their new surroundings, show Julia that she is a stronger person than she believes, while trying to find the wizard to get back to their own time.
Throw into the mix a liberating Angelique (Tara Reid) who falls for the repressed squire Andre and you come up with a lot of very obvious but still amusing situations which will probably leave the adults feeling a bit like they have seen it all before but should have the kids entertained for the duration.
Interestingly Christina Applegate’s character couldn’t be further removed from her famous MARRIED WITH CHILDREN exploits, while Brigette Wilson-Sampras who played a very clean living character in THE WEDDING PLANNER sluts her stuff superbly in JUST VISITING.
Tara Reid almost reprises the character she played in DR T AND THE WOMEN but as she looks so stunningly attractive it doesn’t really matter.
Definitely one for the kids but also good if you just like attractive blonde females!
