British Comedy Guide

Guest House Paradiso

This was on ITV4 last night and I quite enjoyed it. Does anyone else like this film?

It is a 1999 British slapstick dark comedy written by and starring comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and directed by Edmondson - his directorial debut for a feature film.

I would've put it at a few years older than that. Funny how time flies.

Yes, I loved this film. Haven't seen it in at least a decade though. Hope a Blu-ray release might be on the cards...

I found this film horrible apart from a few good jokes...and I was a "Bottom"-fan at the time I was watching it. Too many weak jokes, too many stolen ideas, weak directing etc. Very difficult to sit through. The only thing that made me smile was the fight scene in the kitchen.
But like Aaron, I haven't seen it in a decade. Maybe now's the time to rewatch it. And perhaps my judgement on this wouldn't be that harsh these days.

I didn't watch it and I loved Bottom but hated this film. I mean, it was no Hulk, but it wasn't great.

Dan

I seem to remember I went to see it at the cinema purely because it had Simon Pegg and a nuclear power plant in it, but it turned out to be very funny.

It certainly had its moments but the transfer to the big screen was awkward I thought. Without the audience laughter it just felt weird and Ritchie was truly loathsome in it.

The only real memory I have of it (watched it maybe 9-10 years ago?) is that I felt sick during the last bit and for some time afterwards. There was a lot of throwing up.

Just my two cents worth, I watched this again last night and I absolutely love it. That said, I haven't sat through the last ten minutes for a while, still makes me feel sick. Otherwise, a really funny film with some cracking lines.

"He's a black belt in karate you know!" "More like a pink belt in hanging around gentleman's lavatories on Hampstead Heath!"

Plus the kitchen fight scene is awesome, rivals Jackie Chan for creative useage of props! Those meat hooks, ouch!

Plus any film with Bill Nighy, even in a small role, is always good.

As a die-hard Young Ones / Kevin Turvey fan I found the decline hard to watch... I bought this on DVD for 3 Euro 'cos it was hard to get British comedy in Italy before the free-for-all of YouTube and yup, I'd like my 3 Euros and 90 minutes back.

Quote: Gordon Bennett @ 24th June 2014, 10:02 AM BST

Too many weak jokes, too many stolen ideas

The opening 'worms' gag is pure Kevin Turvey, and the wet dream sequence harks back to 'Young Ones' (my favourite show) 2.5 (my joint favourite episode of my favourite show).
What do you call a cross between Bill Hicks and a poof? Dennis Leary.

Was it ever explained why this is not Richie and Eddie from the Bottom TV Show? Were they changed to justify the running of a hotel, perhaps?

I think they missed a trick and should have just made a Bottom movie based on the TV and live shows. Even if it charted the cruise they were on before being stranded on the island.

Quote: Woozie @ 19th November 2015, 9:28 PM GMT

Was it ever explained why this is not Richie and Eddie from the Bottom TV Show? Were they changed to justify the running of a hotel, perhaps?

To all intents and purposes they are the same characters, I think they had to change the names/continuity to make the film appeal to those who perhaps had not seen Bottom (gosh it's hard to write about Bottom without a double entendre), maybe to sell the film Stateside. I think there was potential for a film in just seeing Richie and Eddie's life in and around Hammersmith, some of the exploits we hear them getting up to, with a bigger budget could have been hilaious.

They're exactly the same, surely...?

Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 21st November 2015, 9:52 AM GMT

They're exactly the same, surely...?

In terms of characterization, they are exactly the same but with different names. They just cut all ties to the TV and Live Show versions and I felt that was rather detrimental to the film.

I wouldn't do an in-depth character analysis on these guys.

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