''Just Visiting'' is a 2001

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

and

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

of the French film ''

Les Visiteurs ''Les Visiteurs'' (; English: ''The Visitors'') is a 1993 French fantasy comedy film directed by Jean-Marie Poiré. It stars the duo of Christian Clavier and Jean Reno, and Valérie Lemercier. It also features Marie-Anne Chazel, :fr:Christian Buje ...

''. It stars

Jean Reno Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez (born 30 July 1948), commonly known as Jean Reno (), is a French-Spanish actor. He established himself as a Leading actor, leading man of French cinema through his collaborations with director Luc Besson, and has w ...

Christina Applegate Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971) is an American actress. With a career spanning five decades, her accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, along with nominations for four Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. After appearing in se ...

Christian Clavier Christian Jean-Marie Clavier (; born 6 May 1952) is a French actor, screenwriter, film producer and director. A co-founder of Le Splendid in the 1970s, a Parisian café-théâtre company which soon garnered success, he became widely popular aft ...

Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is an English actor. He first became known for portraying Mick Travis in Lindsay Anderson's ''if....'' (1968), a role he later reprised in ''O Lucky Man!'' (1973) and ''Britannia Hospital ...

Tara Reid Tara Donna Reid (; born November 8, 1975) is an American actress and model. Her film roles established her status as a sex symbol in the late 1990s through the early 2000s. In film, Reid is best known for her lead ensemble role as Vicky Lathum ...

, and

Bridgette Wilson Bridgette Wilson Sampras (born September 25, 1973) is an American former actress, singer, model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Teen USA 1990. She began her career in acting, playing the character of Lisa Fenimore on the soap opera '' S ...

. It follows a medieval knight and his serf who travel to 21st-century Chicago, meeting the knight's descendant. The film earned around $4.8 million domestically in the U.S. and approximately $11.4 million internationally. Despite a production budget of $35 million, the film did not achieve box office success and fell short of recouping its budget through ticket sales.

Plot

The film takes place in 12th-century

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where Count Thibault Malefète is about to marry Princess Rosalind, the daughter of the reigning King Henry. At the wedding banquet, an enemy known as the

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which has been created four times in English history. The name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation came in 1088, and the title was held b ...

accidentally gives Thibault a potion which makes him

hallucinate A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming (REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pseud ...

(and which was actually intended for Rosalind by a witch hired by the Earl), and under its influence, he kills his own bride Princess Rosalind believing she is a ferocious monster. While under sentence of death, he asks his servant, André Le Paté to find a wizard to help him. The wizard gives him a potion that will send him back to the moment before he killed Princess Rosalind. The wizard botches the spell, and instead, Thibault and André are sent into the 21st century. Thibault and André end up in a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

where they are arrested by the police after causing much panic, mischief, and chaos. They are rescued by Julia Malefète, a museum employee who closely resembles Princess Rosalind. She thinks that Thibault is her distant French cousin who drowned while

yachting Yachting is recreational boating activities using medium/large-sized boats or small ships collectively called yachts. Yachting is distinguished from other forms of boating mainly by the priority focus on comfort and luxury, the dependence on ma ...

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 they return to his time, Thibault decides to protect Julia from her money-hungry fiance, Hunter Cassidy. Meanwhile, André falls for a

gardener A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby. Description A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner suppleme ...

, Angelique 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. After he finds him, he successfully prepares a potion to return to the past. André confronts Thibault, telling him he does not want to return to the 12th century, Julia convinces Thibault that he should set him free. Hunter tries to prevent Thibault from 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 man to marry. Then, he and the wizard drink the potion in the museum and return to the past just before the murder of Princess Rosalind. Thibault offers the tainted wine to the Earl as a peace offering, the latter of whom, not wanting to drink it, jumps out a window to his death. Thibault and Rosalind are then happily reunited. Back in the present, Hunter finds and drinks 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 a great deal about her family's history. In the last scene, André and Angelique are seen driving in a hot rod towards

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, and André asks her who would protect him from the Devil. Angelique simply replies "Hey, at least you got me, babe", to which André happily agrees.

Cast

Soundtrack

Home video

The film was released on VHS and DVD on September 11, 2001.

Box office

The film opened at 12 at the North American box office making $2,272,489

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

in its opening weekend.

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gave the film a score of 33% based on reviews from 79 critics, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "This remake of the French comedy ''

'' ends up being a middling, forgettable effort -- not as good as the original". On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film holds a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

References

External links

* * * {{John Hughes 2001 films 2000s fantasy comedy films 2000s science fiction comedy films American science fiction comedy films American fantasy comedy films American multilingual films French multilingual films 2001 multilingual films American remakes of French films 2000s English-language films Films set in 12th-century Norman England Films set in Chicago Films shot in Chicago Hollywood Pictures films 2000s films about time travel Films with screenplays by John Hughes (filmmaker) Films scored by John Powell Films directed by Jean-Marie Poiré English-language French films 2001 comedy films 2000s American films Foreign films set in the United States English-language science fiction comedy films English-language fantasy comedy films French-language American films