Guest House Paradiso (1999)

Richie and Eddie, a perverted loser and his alcoholic partner in crime, run the worst hotel in Britain: the Guest House Paradiso.

Director:

Adrian Edmondson

Writers:

Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall

Stars:

Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Bill Nighy

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rik Mayall	...	Richard Twat
Adrian Edmondson	...	Eddie Elizabeth Ndingombaba
Bill Nighy	...	Mr. Johnson
Kate Ashfield	...	Mrs. Hardy
Steven O'Donnell	...	Chef (as Steve O'Donnell)
Fenella Fielding	...	Mrs. Foxfur
Charles Cartmell	...	Newscaster
Vincent Cassel	...	Gino Bolognese
Hélène Mahieu	...	Gina Carbonara
Paul Garcia	...	Screen Lover
Sophia Myles	...	Saucy Wood Nymph
Emma Pierson	...	Saucy Wood Nymph
Anna Madeley	...	Saucy Wood Nymph
Simon Pegg	...	Mr. Nice
Lisa Palfrey	...	Mrs. Nice

Storyline

Richard "Richie" Twat and Edward "Eddie" Elizabeth Ndingombaba are two losers who run Guest House Paradiso, the worst hotel in the UK. Guest House Paradiso is next-door to a nuclear power plant, The chef is a illegal immigrant and the waiter is a mental patient who has escaped from a mental hospital. Once the guests check-in, they are dying to check-out. Richie and Eddie's luck is about to change when Gina Carbonara, a Italian movie star checks in and is hiding away from her horrible fiancé Gino Bolognese and the Nice family checks in and Richie discovers Mr. and Mrs. Nice has a rubber bra and underpants. But all hell breaks loose when Richie and Eddie serves radioactive fish to the guests for supper and Gino has tracked Gina down and the guests become very sick.

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | disgusting | disturbing | bare shoulders | hotel | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for gross humor, comic violence, language and sexual content

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 December 1999 (UK)

Also Known As:

Agyatlan Apartman

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

PolyGram Films International, Samuelson Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hélène Mahieu's only English language role.

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Goofs

In the "Vomit" scene, the door leading to the young married couple's room is covered in green slime but in the next shot it is clean.

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Quotes

Richard Twat: Ah! Good evening, Miss Carbonara.
Gina Carbonara: Good evening, Mr. Twat.
Richard Twat: It's cunt!

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Crazy Credits

A scence with Richie, Eddie and Gina on a beach in the caribbean, running "Beach House Paradiso", a bar, is shown.

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Alternate Versions

When the film aired on the Star Movies channel, all the 'F' words were removed.

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Connections

Featured in Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule (2014)

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Soundtracks

Jazz Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold
Written by Vivian Stanshall, Neil Innes, 'Legs' Larry Smith, Rodney Slater,
Roger Ruskin Spear, Vernon Dudley Bowhay Nowell, Martin Ash
Performed by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

User Reviews

If Bottom is your idea of wit par excellance then go for it, but most audiences will end up feeling soiled and sullied by the whole nasty affair

The Guest House Paradiso is situated right on the edge of the cliffs on the English coast with great views on one side and a nuclear power plant on the other. As if that wasn't reason enough to avoid it, the owners, Eddie and Richard, are about the least competent or hospitable people in the hotel trade – making Basil Fawlty looking like the best manager in the world. When a disaster in the kitchen proves to be the last straw for the few guests living there, Richard and Eddie finds themselves alone in the hotel. The blissful peace doesn't last long though, because a young family (The Nice's) turn up, with the Paradiso being the only place they can afford. This is bad enough but things are only going to get more complicated when an Italian film star, rubber swimwear and a dish called "fish surprise" come into play.

It is not always possible to say that a film is bad or good because sometimes they are aimed so specifically at a particular audience that if you're not in that group then it is likely that you will hate it while they think it is fantastic. In these situations it is possible that the "majority rule" is not necessarily right but Guest house Paradiso is an example of where you really want to be trusting the majority. Of course you could fall into a very small group of people who find uninspired crudity funny but, if that is you then you probably have more important things to sort out than to be watching this film. Those who like Bottom will love this but I would be surprised if anyone else found much to enjoy in this thing; the violent and crude slapstick is basically copied from that TV show, which is a problem because, as you might guess, I'm not a fan of it at all.

The narrative here is pathetic though and makes Bottom's plots about sex etc look like highly polished works of literature. Here we have plots about Italian film stars, video tapes of rubber cavorting, nuclear fish and, when all else fails vomit, lots of vomit. The script doesn't offer anything other than crudity to work with and by the end of the film I had been worn down by shoddy jokes, crudity for crudity's sake and an endless feeling of being rather soiled by the whole affair. Normally I would sorry for the cast in this sort of film but since Mayall and Edmondson wrote and directed this they have nobody to blame. They can take a punch but they cannot make this tired old filth feel fresh or funny; by the time they are swimming in green vomit I really worried that they must have actually thought this was a good idea and worth doing. Support from Pegg is sad because he has shown himself to be much smarter than this with his various projects and this must have been like a low point for him. How on earth Casell, Nighy and Mahieu got involved is beyond me.

Overall, if you think Bottom is the funniest thing ever then you will enjoy this film. For the vast majority of audiences though it is endlessly crude and constantly just aiming for the lowest form of humour that it can get; the "big climax" of loads of vomit just made me wonder what on earth the funders of this rubbish were thinking. I apologise to all the teenage boys who think this film is brilliant but I gotta call it like I see it and this is sh*t of the highest (or lowest) order.