Les Rois mages (2001)
Directed by Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan

Film Review

Les Inconnus - the very popular '90s comedy trio comprising Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan, Pascal Légitimus - are reunited here for the first time since 1995, when they starred in the box office hit Les Trois frères.  Although Les Rois mages has some great comedy, it is spread pretty thinly in comparison to Les Inconnu's earlier film, and overall it is a great let down.  It's hard to get away from the fact that the story relies on a plot device - an unexplained teleportation - which feels so lazy and hackneyed, the same trick having being employed to far greater effect in Les Visiteurs (1993), a film which Les Rois mages seems to closely imitate.  Without such silliness as this, and a few rather pointless O.T.T. special effects, this film could have had much greater appeal.  The three lead actors work together well and their inoffensive brand of comedy is very engaging, but their efforts are largely wasted in this horribly contrived and overly self-conscious film.

Film Synopsis

Guided by the divine star in the Orient, Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspard undertake their holy pilgrimage towards a modest little stable in Bethlehem so they can offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the future saviour of mankind.  But before they can reach their destination there is a sudden hiccup in the spacetime continuum and the three wise men find themselves miraculously sent forward in time by two thousand years.  At the start of the third millennium, here they are pounding the streets of Paris, wondering what to do next.  Their surroundings may have changed, but they are still determined to carry through their mission and are soon resuming their search for the infant Jesus.

On the way, the three wise men encounter a young woman, Macha, who will be their guide in this strange land.  As Melchior gets to know a young drugs dealer, Jo, his fellow pilgrims acquire a taste for hamburgers and gambling.  Macha has enough problems of her own without having to cope with three over-dressed lunatics hanging on to her like their wet nurse.  Not being a fan of either the New Testament or contemporary science-fiction, she sees Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspard not as three unfortunate victims of a badly constructed universe, but as madmen desperately in search of an asylum.  Her mother's boss, Hoeder, doesn't share her view.  A multi-media executive, he is always on the look out for another gimmick to boost his bank account, and in 'les rois mages' he believes he has found the marketing gimmick of a lifetime...