Review of Guest House Paradiso (1999) by Sol H — 06 Sep 2007

Best in Show: Rik Mayall.

One for the future: Vincent Cassell.

Stand-out scene: Vomathon.

Brainer or no-brainer: No brainer.

Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: One.

DVD commentary any good?: n/a.

TV.

If Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson hadn't been involved in such excellent work as The Young Ones and Bottom, then this wouldn't have come as such as such a disappointment. Sure, they've misfired in the past on Filthy, Rich and Catflap and a couple of The Comic Strip presents... offerings but this has got to be their stinkiest stinker to date. Maybe it's the setting of a dingy hotel and the denigration of Bottom's Richie Richard and Eddie Hitler into even seedier territory in the guise of Richie Twat (pronounced Thwaite) and Eddie Elizabeth Ndingombaba that accentuates the unrelenting grimness of it all, but there's little to like here. The story, as flimsy as it is, doesn't really get going for the first 40 minutes or so and as much as I like a bit of slapstick, Rik poking Ade in the eye/hitting him with a frying pan isn't exactly a ground-breaking development. The dining room door making the same sound as the one in the obscure French comedy from the Fifties Les Vacances de M. Hulot is exactly the kind of private joke Mayall and Edmonson revel in and is one of the few bright points in the whole film (that and the swing precariously placed on a clifftop). The whole movie climaxing in one giant vomathon is indicative of their 'kids in a sweetie shop' approach, and by that I mean kids that would gorge themselves on all the things they like before spewing up the whole bally lot. That co-stars Simon Pegg, Bill Nighy, Kate Ashcroft were reunited in an altogether more inventive project, Shaun of the Dead, throws this movie's shortcomings into even sharper relief. A fabulous opportunity sadly squandered.