Hotel Paradiso

I saw this when it first came out, and found it to be a work of some genius; but I must confess I was clearly in the minority at the time.

For me, the progressive lunacy of the proprietors of Guest House Paradiso just gets better and better throughout the film, with one of the most hilarious climaxes to a film ever.

But I wouldn't recommend it to Mother.

Lovers of gross-out comic book style humour will appreciate this movie; there are subtle jokes hidden away, but they are usually quickly flattened by a comedy frying pan. Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson are superb, and the deadpan, unsuspecting guests are also excellent.

The first time I had heard of Guest House Paridiso was in the, er... "washroom" after having just seen Fight Club. In each urinal was deposited a small, round black circle. When the circle came into contact with moisture (to put it delicately), it caused a colour picture to form, with photographs of the two stars and the tag line "You'll P*** Yourself Laughing". When you'd finished washing your hands, the circle had dried and faded to black again, waiting to spring it's surprise on the next "victim".

Okay, maybe the punchline wasn't terribly sophisticated, but you have to admit it was innovative. In fact, I think I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it in my life before, and these days of over a century of cinema and marketing, that's a real feat. What a pity the film that went with it failed to live up to the promise.

I hate to pan Guest House Paridiso and I am indebted to Rik Mayall (Richard Twat) and Adrian Edmondson (Eddie Elizabeth Ndingombaba) for many years of laughter through their appealing television series, be it the invention of The Young Ones (1982-1984), the sitting room plays of Bottom (1991-1995), or even solo work, such as Rik in the New Statesman (1988-1993). In fact, this would have made an hilarious 45 minute tv special. Unfortunately, its an 89 minute film.

There's definitely some merit to be had, and I laughed continuously throughout the protracted finale, which spoofed the Exorcist and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and involved... well, you'll have to see that bit for yourself. Yet often the pace is leaden, and a sterile atmosphere is throughout. The two stars (Edmondson taking his usual backseat, this time due to the fact that he adequately directs) never really get into first gear, Mayall only sporadically showing the foul-mouthed mania that makes us love him on the small screen. Indeed, the writers' presumption that we are already familiar with the characters leads to them being underdelivered to the audience. The slight hints of depth seen in the series (Richie's effeminate, failed social-climbing for example) are not present here, and instead we are left with parodies of parodies.

The Fawlty Towers accusation does pass water, complete with drunken chef and unseen, called-for waiter "Pasquele", which uncannily rhymes with Manuel. Some of the ideas, such a hotel next to a nuclear reactor with a childrens' swing hanging over a cliff face, are very, very funny, but ultimately the frenetic pace is stolen, the two constantly looking for a studio audience that isn't there, and all the "dead laugh" areas patched up with incidental "comedy" music that would have been dated in a Carry On film two decades ago.

Paridiso's brand of puerile, sadistic, perverse humour IS funny, and I feel sure it will make you laugh ... just not as often as it should.

..only worse

the beating each other up, and destroying everything in sight was funny when the 2 main characters were still adolescent students in "The Young Ones", but this movie just isn't it. It's slightly funny every now and then, but nothing special.

a 6 (for the sake of it)

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.

A sign of what to expect in this film came when I spotted that this was the first (and probably the last) film to have in its credits a "Vomit Technician".

In what is a couple of hours of silly gags, hilarious violence and excellent slapstick humour.

This film was just what you'd expect from the Bottom boys, and it is great to see them back in their best form after Rik Mayall's life threatening accident.

Richie (Mayall) and Eddie (Edmondson) are too similar to their Bottom characters, if we can have any criticism at all, and Edmondson does a surprisingly good job in directing the film also.

This film has already spawned the predictable comparisons to Fawlty Towers that just aren't there, and the Guest House Paradiso itself is hardly Torquay!

Watch out for some excellently crafted dialogue amongst all the violence and mayhem.

If you don't like Bottom you'll probably hate this - but I loved it.