Just Visiting

Here’s a new twist to the Americanization of Gallic goofiness. This remake of the 1993 blockbuster Les Visiteurs (9 Cesar nominations and nearly $100 million business worldwide) includes original director Jean-Marie Gaubert, writers Christian Clavier and Marie Poire, and stars Jean Reno and Clavier. John Hughes helped rewrite this comedy into modern Chicago where a 12th century nobleman and his servant crash-land after digesting a wizard’s (Malcolm McDowell) flawed time-travel potion. The Dark Age duo meet one of the count’s descendants (Christina Applegate) and must return home in the only time corridor that allows them to save the life of the nobleman’s slain fiancée. This fish-out-of-water fantasy about culture clash and self-assertion is as clunky as the count’s armor, sometimes crude, but often very funny.