film review no.3 - guest house paradiso (1999)

Guest House Paradiso - 1999                             

Rating - 15

Director - Ade Edmondson

Written by - Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson

Starring - Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Simon Pegg, Fenella Fielding

Run time - 89 minutes

Guest House Paradiso is a 1999 comedy which is based around two middle-aged hopeless rejects like Rik & Ade’s previous TV show Bottom then called Richard “Richie” Richard (Mayall) and Edward “Eddie” Elizabeth Hitler (Edmondson), but this time called Richard “Richie” Twat (pronounced “Thwaite”(Mayall)) and Edward “Eddie” Elizabeth Ndigombaba (Edmondson) who this time run a dirty, squalid hotel right next to a nuclear power plant on the Isle of Wight, which leaves it with the title “The Cheapest Hotel in Britain”.

The film starts with them getting ready in the morning to start serving breakfast alternating between shots of Richie getting changed in his room and Eddie on a motorbike rushing back to the hotel while having a martini and doing some stunts on the way. By the time Richie has made it to the front desk, Eddie slips in unnoticed. By the time they make it to the kitchen, they realize the cook and waiter have gone awol, so Richie and Eddie have to serve breakfast and run the hotel themselves which leads to a rather dragged on “pheeb” scene and then an action-packed kitchen fight scene which is one of the highlights of the film. That leads to another series of events until Gina Carbonara (Helene Mahieu), a famous Italian actress arrives incognito at the hotel trying to hide from her abusive fiance and the press. After that Eddie discovers some fish fallen off a passing van which they serve for tea eaten by everyone except Richie, Eddie, and Gina Carbonara which later turns out to be infected radioactive fish! This leads to a series of unfortunate events and some funny gags along the way.

Guest House Paradiso is not that great of an example of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson’s work as the film definitely doesn't hold up as well as there other various projects over the years, though this was near the end of their working relationship as they parted ways in 2003. A new spinoff series of bottom was planned in 2012/13 but was ditched by Edmondson after he decided he didn't want to be part of it. 

Overall, Guest House Paradiso is a rather mediocre film but still got some great gags and writing along the way with a cast of great and various well-renowned actors throughout. It is still a good watch if you're a fan of Rik and Ade or just looking for a laugh.

Score - 5/10