Hotel Paradiso

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.

I'm a huge fan of bottom, even took the time to create my own website about it and when I heard about the film, I coulden't wait. Overall, the film is good but is no where as good as Bottom - No way. Compared to Bottom, Guest House Paradiso is like going to a funeral. But don't get me wrong, the film is still hillarious in some parts but you really must be a fan of Rik and Ade to enjoy the film.

I went to see it about 3 days before Xmas and lets just say it, it was a great Xmas trip!!!! Better than Fawlty Towers any day!!!!When I heard the name Mr. Twat, I killed myself laughing!! With him getting stuck in the oven with that underwear was brill but oh the chef was hilraious!! Spud Gun at his best!!! But I look around and everyone seems to hate it!!! Well youre not true Bottom fans!!! Im getting it when it comes onto video, thats for sure!!!!

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.