Guest House Paradiso (1999)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Adrian Edmondson

Writers:

Adrian Edmondson (writer)
Rik Mayall (writer)

Release Date:

3 December 1999 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Thriller

Plot:

Richie and Eddie are in charge of the worst hotel in the UK, Guest House Paradiso, neighbouring a nuclear power plant...

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Fish | Wedding Dress | Sadomasochism | Radiation

Cast

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

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | France:U | Germany:16 | Hungary:18 | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:M | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

PolyGram Films International

Trivia:

This was Simon Pegg's first feature film appearance.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Richie gets the pencil shot into his rear, he knocks over the table (which two guests are also sitting at), knocking over all the items on the table. Then Richie and Eddie fight in the kitchen, and it then cuts back to a reaction shot of the two guests sitting at the same table, only now the items on the table are all suddenly back upright and intact again.

Quotes:

Mrs Hardy: [ordering breakfast] Where do your eggs come from?
Richard Twat: Ermm... Hen's vaginas?

Movie Connections:

References From Soup to Nuts (1928)

Soundtrack:

Jazz Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold

"Candle in the eye!"

I've always liked to think of myself as an intelligent and sophisticated viewer of both movies and television. I've always prided myself on appreciating films with strong, uncompromising stories. I know what David Lynch is going on about, okay?

The only trouble is that, for some bizarre reason, the sight of Rik Mayall pretending to kick Adrian Edmondson in the groin (accompanied by an over the top crunching sound effect) never, ever fails to make me laugh like an idiot who's just seen an ex-Doctor Who slip over on a banana skin.

So excited was I at Richie and Eddie's leap to the celluloid fantasy of the big screen ('ere, 'ark at 'im) that I arrived an hour and five minutes early. I'd been waiting for the film ever since the first rumours about a year and a half before hand.

With such a build up, how could it leave up to my expectations? Well, I don't know, but it did.

Hysterical laughter ensued right from the off (that's right, I even laughed at the close up of Richie sleeping that starts the film) and didn't stop for, ooh, some time (half way through the ending titles, I think).

As movie sandwiches go, this one had a good spread, but had some very good chunks added to the mixture. Amongst the best were Richie's hysterical laughter/wince inducing 'Candle in the eye' and the scene with Simon Pegg's nipple ring that got a truly amazing reaction from a woman sat near me.

So, I loved it. True, not everybody finds somebody getting a fire extinguisher in the face, or getting trapped in an oven, or all of the other really painful goings on funny, but we don't talk about them.

Any problems? Well...it ended a bit suddenly. It took me a couple of seconds to realize the film was actually over. It did lack Rik and Ade's usual bitter nastiness - just look how many Bottom escapades ended with Richie and Eddie's untimely deaths.

Still, a good note to end on: It's bloody funny. No, bloody bloody funny.