Review of Guest House Paradiso (1999) by Stuart K — 06 Feb 2015

Well it had to happen. :P With the success of the BBC series Bottom, as well as their live stage shows. Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall wrote this film spin-off, with Edmondson directing the film, (he'd had experience from directing some Comic Strip episodes), and it's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from them.

Just remove your brain for an hour and a half, and you'll laugh like a loon. Richard Twat (Mayall) and Eddie Ndingombaba (Edmondson) run the worst hotel in the United Kingdom, which is located next door to a poorly managed nuclear power station.

Richard and Eddie's bad manners and violence towards one another leaves the guests, including Mr. Johnson (Bill Nighy) and Mr. Nice (Simon Pegg) completely appalled, but things look up for the Guest House Paradiso when famous Italian actress Gina Carbonara (Hélène Mahieu) arrives at the hotel seeking refuge from her violent fiancé Gino Bolognese (Vincent Cassel), who she ran away from at their wedding.

Richard immediately see's the opportunity for more guests, but trouble is leaking... It's a very silly film, done on the cheap, and proud of it. But, there's nothing funnier than seeing Edmondson and Mayall knocking the shit out of one another.

It's a shame we'll never see another one, as no-one could create grubby environments and characters and violent slapstick like Edmondson and Mayall.