Les couloirs du temps: Les visiteurs 2 (1998)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Jean-Marie Poiré

Writers:

Christian Clavier (writer)
Jean-Marie Poiré (writer)

Release Date:

27 March 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Sci-Fi | Fantasy

Tagline:

Ils reviennent!

Plot:

Knight Godefroy has to return to our time from 1023 to get back the sacred jewels that Jacquouille has taken to the 20th century.

Plot Keywords:

Jewel | Knight | Medieval | Sequel | Castle

Cast

Christian Clavier	...	Jacquouille la Fripouille / Jacques-Henri Jacquard / Prosper le Purineur / Jacouillet
Jean Reno	...	Comte Godefroy de Montmirail, dit Godefroy le Hardi
Muriel Robin	...	Frénégonde / Béatrice
Marie-Anne Chazel	...	Ginette
Jean-Luc Caron	...	Ganelon
Patrick Burgel	...	Duc Fulbert
Eric Averlant	...	Brother Raoul
Armelle	...	Pétronille
Pierre Vial	...	Eusaebe
Franck-Olivier Bonnet	...	Boniface
Philippe Morier-Genoud	...	Frère Ponce
Philippe Nahon	...	Le gérant du supermarché
Christian Bujeau	...	Jean-Pierre
Olivier Claverie	...	Le médecin
Olga Sékulic	...	Hilda

Also Known As:

Les couloirs du temps
The Corridors of Time (Singapore: English title) (festival title)
The Corridors of Time: The Visitors II

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Finland:K-7 | France:U | Germany:6 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Château de Beynac, Beynac, Dordogne, France

Company:

Canal+

Goofs:

Continuity: Stripes of frost vanish from the window as Jean-Pierre looks out of it.

Quotes:

Jacquouille la Fripouille: [the police car crashes into the post van] It's the Saracen, sire!
Postman: The sickos are back!
[runs off]
Postman: The sickos are back! The sickos are back! The sickos are back
[etc]

Movie Connections:

Features "Derrick" (1974)

Like most sequels, a medieval Trial by Ordeal

The original LES VISITEURS (THE VISITORS) was a delightful time-travel comedy, and they tried to resurrect all the same actors and elements for a sequel. However, the interesting premise about how the exchange of the medieval Jacquouille and the modern Jacquart (in the end of the first movie) disrupts the "corridors of time" was not followed through, and the ending in yet a third era of French history fizzles like a mispronounced incantation in Latin. The directors seem to think that all's well that ends worse than before.

Christian Clavier valiantly attempts to maintain the manic pace of his characters Jacquouille/Jacquart, but falls into the same repeated schticks such as gorging himself using both hands every time he passes by catered food trays ("Cutlery? What's that?"). One good scene is the firefighting, where Jacquouille attempts to "help": his medieval attitudes tell him that firefighting is a communal affair even as the firefighters beg him to leave it to the experts, with hilarious results. Together with Jean Reno's character Godefroy, these two Middle Ages misfits never seem to learn, to develop, and keep on touching modern implements they have no business touching. One would hope that the humor in their situation would mature and that the pair would successfully learn to use electric razors and stop eating like there's going to be a famine tomorrow, but it never develops.

For a somewhat more successful French time-travel comedy, I would recommend L'HIVERNÉ.