Just Visiting

Euro transplants don't attach to the body Hollywood with any degree of success. Even the popular Three Men And A Baby was a sickly twin.

Just Visiting is a US remake of the box office smash, Les Visiteurs, in which Jean Reno, as a medieval knight, and Christian Clavier, as his servant, find themselves in modern times.

Why this American copy should be so dire, especially with the same actors and director, is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps it is the addition of John (Home Alone) Hughes on the scriptwriters' rota that administers the coup-de-grace.

Malcolm McDowell appears as a cut-price Gandalf, who botches a magic potion that sends Reno and Clavier to the city of flushing toilets, ice machines, motor cars and club sodas. Once he made movies for Stanley Kubrick and Lindsay Anderson. Watching this, you can hardly believe it.

The jokes are overplayed and feeble to the point of embarrassment. A subplot concerning an opportunistic businessman (Matthew Ross) and his mistress (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) should have remained in the Out tray.

Reno is diminished by the humiliation of his role and Clavier, as a Gallic 12th century Baldrick, has to endure endless smelly gags before letting rip with a chick (Tara Reid) at a downtown disco.

Jean-Marie Gaubert is known as the best director of comedy in France. Something happened en route to Chicago. His funny bone snapped and he spent the rest of his stay in plaster.