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Jean Reno and Christian Clavier star as medieval knight, Count
Godefroy, and his loyal but grotesque vassal, Jacquouille,
who are accidentally catapulted through time into the 20th
Century by a bumbling wizard.
The
adventure begins when Godefroy saves the King of France's
life during battle and is rewarded by being allowed leave
in order to seek a bride. While travelling to meet his loved
one, he and his companions capture a witch, who secretly poisons
Godefroy with a hallucinogenic potion. Deeply under the influence
of the drug on arrival at his betrothed's castle, Godefroy
manages to shoot his future father-in-law in the head with
a crossbow, effectively destroying any hopes he had of wedded
bliss. But all is not lost. With the help of the Wizard Eusebius,
Godefroy plans to go back in time to amend his fatal mistake.
Unfortunately, a forgotten ingredient sees the wizard's spell
propelling Godefroy and Jacquouille 700 years into the future
where they are confronted by the countless perils of the 20th
century, from cars and flushing toilets to telephones and
clingfilm.
Les
Visiteurs is one of the most popular movies in French
cinema history (and famous worldwide at the time of its release
for taking more money at the French box office than Jurassic
Park). The
movie is wall to wall slapstick and rather silly, but in a
good way. If you don't take it too seriously, and just go
with the flow, this is not a half bad film. However, it will
probably appeal more to the younger audience than anyone over
the age of 15.
One
thing I noticed was that Eric Levi's music for the opening
scenes bared more than a passing resemblance to Michael Kamen's
music for the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Whether this is a clever pastiche, or Levi ripping Kamen's
music off is open to debate.
Having
survived (but only just) the events of the first film, Godefroy
is forced to return to the future from the relative safety
of medieval France in Les Visiteurs 2: The Corridors of
Time. This time his quest involves locating the missing
family jewels, along with a sacred relic that guarantees the
fertility of his wife-to-be. Naturally, his repellent servant
Jacquouille is also on hand to make matters far more complicated,
and hilarious, than either of them expected.
To
be honest Les
Visiteurs 2
is not a very good film. The gags get old quickly and the
plot is a terrible reworking of the first movie. Several of
the actors are different (most notably Sir Godefroy's love
interest) and the whole project was a really bad idea. Add
to that the fact that this is really a vehicle for wall-to-wall
advertising, and you soon realise why the second movie got
off the ground - it was probably in profit before it was released,
thanks to the numerous high profile advertising deals.
Again,
like the first movie, the comedy is more likely to appeal
to the younger generation (shame this box set has a 15 rating).
There
is only one extra on these discs, and that's the trailer for
the first movie.
While
not a total disaster, I can think of a lot better DVD releases
I'd rather spend £20 on.
Pete
Boomer
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