| Guest House Paradiso | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Adrian Edmondson |
| Written by | Adrian Edmondson Rik Mayall |
| Based on | Bottom by Adrian Edmondson Rik Mayall |
| Produced by | Phil McIntyre |
| Starring | Adrian Edmondson Rik Mayall |
| Cinematography | Alan Almond |
| Edited by | Sean Barton |
| Music by | Colin Towns |
Production companies | PolyGram Films International Samuelson Productions |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures International |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes[1] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £3 million |
| Box office | |
Guest House Paradiso (later subtitled as Richie and Eddie's Bottom Movie) is a 1999 British slapstick black comedy film written by and starring comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, who also directed in his feature directorial debut.
The film is a spin-off of their BBC comedy television series Bottom. Mayall and Edmondson reprise their roles from the series respectively as Richie and Eddie, albeit with different surnames. The film was made at Ealing Studios and on location on the Isle of Wight, off Military Road A3055, between the villages of Afton and Brighstone.
Plot
[edit]Richard "Richie" Twat (Rik Mayall) and Edward "Eddie" Elizabeth Ndingombaba (Adrian Edmondson) run the Guest House Paradiso, the worst guest house in the United Kingdom. Following a staff exodus, the hotel begins rapidly bleeding customers, until the arrival of the Nice family, headed by Mr. Nice (Simon Pegg), and the famous Italian actress Gina Carbonara (Hélène Mahieu), on the run from her ill-tempered and criminal fiancé, Gino Bolognese (Vincent Cassel), reverse their fortunes.
Due to the chef stealing all the food, Richie and Eddie resort to collecting radioactive fish salvaged from the nearby nuclear power station's lorries to serve for supper. Meanwhile, Gino tracks down Gina thanks to her residency being promoted to attract more guests. After convincing Gina to a sudden elopement, Gino then tries to rape her. However, after having consumed the radioactive fish, Gino, and the other guests at the hotel, suddenly grow violently ill. After discovering the disastrous effects their dinner is having, Richie and Eddie prepare their escape, but not before rescuing Gina from Gino. Gino proceeds to get caught in the crossfire of the projectile-vomiting guests, which pushes him out a window and off a cliff, where he meets his demise.
Just before they can flee, government agents arrive, intending to enact a cover-up, and offer Richie and Eddie £10 million, first-class tickets to the Caribbean, and new identities for them and Gina, in exchange for their silence, which they promptly accept. In a post-credits scene, the three are at a beach bar called the Beach Bar Paradiso, where Eddie winks to the camera and says only Gino died, otherwise there'd be "a moral question-mark hanging over our escape."
Cast
[edit]- Rik Mayall as Richard "Richie" Twat
- Adrian Edmondson as Edward "Eddie" Elizabeth Ndingombaba
- Vincent Cassel as Gino Giuseppe Bolognese
- Hélène Mahieu as Gina Tortellini Carbonara
- Bill Nighy as Mr. Johnson
- Kate Ashfield as Ms. Hardy
- Simon Pegg as Mr. Nice
- Fenella Fielding as Mrs. Foxfur
- Lisa Palfrey as Mrs. Nice
- Steve O'Donnell as Chef Lardy Barsto
- James D'Arcy as Newly Wedded Husband
- Kate Loustau as Newly Wedded Wife
- Paul Garcia as Screen Lover
- Sophia Myles, Emma Pierson, and Anna Madeley as Saucy Wood Nymphs
Production
[edit]Development for the film was inspired by the various hotel stays Mayall and Edmondson would often have during their Bottom Live shows, which prompted the duo to consider placing their characters in a situation where they would be running one.[4] As they were writing the script for this film, Mayall would be involved in a quad bike accident in 1998 that almost killed him, leaving him unresponsive for some time.[5]
It was during Mayall's recovery they'd finish the script, only to further rework it to reduce its length, which Mayall estimated had been nearly four hours long.[6] Due to Mayall's accident, it was decided that Edmondson would handle directing duties.[6] Edmondson was assured by Mayall's consultant that it was safe to physically hit him during filming, being told only a "traumatic blow [would] cause any damage."[7] Despite this, Edmondson still sought to mitigate the amount of harm Mayall's character would be inflicted by, including cutting a scene where Mayall would've fallen down a staircase, saying "I thought it was stupid to risk it because every trick you do like that, you have to do at least part of it yourself. And you can't get away with not banging your head at all."[7]
For the vomiting sequence towards the end of the film, Edmondson sought advice from Terry Jones on how to best incorporate it due to Jones's performance as Mr Creosote in Monty Python's 1983 film, The Meaning of Life.[8] Edmondson would create the role of 'Vomit Technician' to help collect videotapes of different kinds of vomit for the film's special effects department to study when creating materials. He'd further add that "it was written a lot longer, and a lot larger. It was written with Titanic-like corridors of vomit, but it was a low-budget film. So we ended up doing a parody of the Harrison Ford film ... [i]t was actually a lot funnier."[9]
The title is a reference to Hotel Paradiso and Cinema Paradiso. The movie also references Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, with the tyre marks left on Eddie's face meant to allude to antagonist Darth Maul, Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the film's climactic flee from a giant ball of vomit, and Monsieur Hulot's Holiday, with the dining-room doors replicating sounds featured in the film.[10] Though a scene where Richie and Eddie misunderstand what an "undressed" salad entails bears similarities with a Laurel and Hardy bit, Edmondson said he was unaware of it during production.[11]
Reception
[edit]Box office
[edit]Guest House Paradiso grossed £1.5 million within the United Kingdom.[2] Outside the UK, the film grossed £300,000/$500,000 abroad.[3]
Critical response
[edit]Ben Falk of Empire gave the film a 2 out of 5 star rating, saying "the boys toil incredibly hard to make the whole thing work and, while there are some hilarious moments, it is far too patchy for a full feature film."[12] David Elley of Variety said the film "ends up being about as funny as burning an orphanage."[3]
References
[edit]- ^ "Guest House Paradiso (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 5 October 1999. Retrieved 19 July 2025.
- ^ a b "Top 10 UK Indie Releases". Screen International. 28 January 2000. p. 18.
- ^ a b c Stephen Glynn (2023). The British Sitcom Spinoff Film. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 165.
- ^ Crow, Jonathan (2008). "Guest House Paradiso". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008.
- ^ "Comedian Rik Mayall 'seriously ill'". BBC News. 11 April 1998.
- ^ a b Bye, Ed; Burchell, Simon (1999). The Making of 'Guest House Paradiso'. Vision Video Ltd.
- ^ a b Palmer, Martyn (December 1999). "Rude Health". The London Times.
- ^ Mayall, Rik (August 2000). "Rik Mayall Interview" (Interview). Interviewed by Cashmere, Paul. Undercover.
- ^ Gordon, Bob (July 2000). "Interesting New Work with Fart Jokes". X-Press.
- ^ Stephen Glynn (2023). The British Sitcom Spinoff Film. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 167.
- ^ Dessau, Bruce (14 April 2024). "Interview: Adrian Edmondson On The New Bottom Documentary". Beyond The Joke.
- ^ Falk, Ben. "Guest House Paradiso". Empire. Archived from the original on 11 November 2006.