"And as we always say at the Guest House Paradiso: Have fun, don't go in the water if you know what's good for you, and try not to get shit on the sheets!"
Guest House Paradiso is a 1999 Slapstick comedy film written by and starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. Directed by Ade Edmondson and also starring Simon Pegg, Vincent Cassel and Bill Nighy. An offshoot of Rik and Ade's series Bottom, it features main characters Richie and Eddie running a cheap and nasty hotel.— Richie
Very cheap. And very nasty.
Provides examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Richie's last name has been changed from Richard to Twat while Eddie used to be Hitler but is now Ndingombaba.
- Adaptational Wimp: Eddie. While in Bottom, he was more than capable of beating Richie in a fight and barely shrugged off most harmful things that happened to him, he reacts a lot more badly to comparatively less injuries and quite handily loses the brawl in the kitchen against Richie.
- An Aesop: Don't feed people food if you don't know where it came from.
- Hotels should not be built near power plants.
- Asshole Victim: Gino is the only character confirmed to have died by the film's end. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
- Ass Shove: Eddie sends a pencil into Richie's back side (Pointy end first).
- Bad Liar: Eddie tries to pass off a gas explosion as "Basque, separatist mice."
- Bag of Holding: Eddie pulls a full pint mug of beer out his jacket. While on a motorbike that he can no longer steer.
- Blind Without 'Em: Eddie's vision is extremely wavy without his glasses.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Eddie tries to get Gino to watch the language as they're trying to keep the film PG-rated. Gino apologies and swears regardless, prompting Eddie to shrug at the camera openly saying "I tried".
- Broad Strokes: In the TV series, Richie's surname is Richard, and Eddie's is Hitler. Here, Richie has the surname "Twat" (which he frequently insists is pronounced "Thwaite"), and Eddie "Ndingombaba."
- Country Matters: A Running Gag has people calling Richie Twat and him correcting them saying it's pronounced Thwaite. At one one point he corrects Gina but accidentally says it's pronounced Cunt.
- Decontamination Chamber: Chatty, one of the neighbouring power plant workers, mentions having to take seven showers in one day. This further emphasises how poorly maintained and unkempt the power plant is.
- Deus ex Machina: Ends with government agents giving them £10 million and new identities.
- Domestic Abuser: Gino Bolognese. Not only is he violent, possessive, and a suspected drug runner, he also slept with all three bridesmaids the night before his and Gina Carbonara's wedding.
- Double Entendre:Ms. Hardy: Do you have Lapsang-souchong?Richie: No. No-no-no-no-no. It's just that I put my underpants on back-to-front this morning.
- Edible Theme Naming: Both Gina and Gino's surnames are Italian foodstuffs.
- Establishing Character Moment: The film opens up with Richie muttering "You bastards" in his sleep. Eddie is shown sleeping on a motorcycle that's careening down a highway.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Richie and Eddie have been stealing from and abusing their guests the whole film, but they are nothing compared to Gino. Even Eddie is horrified by how he treats Gina.Eddie: He's bad!
- Eye Scream: Richie gets a lit candle in the eye at one point. When he tries to explain this to Eddie, Eddie thinks he wants another one.
- George Washington Slept Here: After learning they have no food to serve at dinner, Richie laments that he was planning on having a plaque made saying "Gina Carbonara stayed here".Eddie: Well, now you're gonna have to get a slightly bigger one, mate, saying: "Gina Carbonara stayed here... and thought it was shit."
- Glasses Curiosity: Richie dons Eddie's glasses as a disguise. They were both rendered nearly blind as a result.
- Groin Attack: Eddie uses a pair of nutcrackers on Richie's privates; This soon turns into a gonad-kicking contest.
- Hilarious Out Takes: The "Arse Ups" on the DVD.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Gina thinks the pervy, condescending Richie is a sweet man, and believes she can trust Eddie with her identity, only moments after meeting him. (Compared to Gino, however, those two are saints).
- Hypocritical Humor: Richie is always on the case of couples who come to his hotel hoping to have a sexual escapade. He himself is a total deviant, to the point where he steals a guest's underwear and fondles Eddie's penis.
- Indy Escape: From a giant ball of vomit.
- Insatiable Newlyweds: The Barkers. They spend all day in the honeymoon suite, only coming down for supper, to Richie's shock.Richie: Well, what can I get you? Vitamins? Energy tablets? Fanny pump?
- Is the Answer to This Question "Yes"?: Subverted:Eddie: Is the Pope a Catholic?
Richie: Yes.
Eddie: Is he? I never knew that. - Karma Houdini: Eddie and Richie are not nice people. They get two suitcases full of money and live the rest of their lives on a tropical island receiving blowjobs from Gina.
- Lampshade Hanging: In the final scene, it is pointed out that it is lucky that only Gino died from the nuked fish, otherwise there would have been a moral question mark over our "heroes"' escape.
- Last Words: Hilariously Gino, before being knocked off the cliff-side into the ocean below.Gino: All I wanted was a shag!
- Literal-Minded:
- When Mrs. Nice asks Eddie if breakfast is "thrown in", Eddie replies "It depends on who's serving. I usually bring it in on a tray."
- When Gina tells Richie she would like her dinner salad "undressed" (as in, without dressing), he believes she means she wants to eat naked.
- The Men in Black: The government swoops in to perform a Big Damn Heroes move.
- Morality Pet: While Richie does manage to fool Gina into believing he is a "sweet man", it is worth noting that Richie does genuinely behave in a gentlemanly manner in front of her and he never tries to take advantage of her, like he does with the rest of his guests. Plus, Richie and Eddie save Gina at the end of the film, rather than abandoning her.
- Nasal Trauma: During the kitchen fight, Richie jams pieces of a toast rack up Eddie's nostrils.
- No Endor Holocaust: In the Post-Credits Scene, Gina says that Gino was the only person who died.
- Pronouncing My Name for You: Richie insists his surname is pronounced "Thwaite."
- Rescue Equipment Attack: Eddie bashes Richie in the face several times with a fire extinguisher during their fight in the kitchen.
- Self-Plagiarism: The gag of Richie pretending to be his own twin was previously used in The Comic Strip Presents episode More Bad News where Colin Grigson pretended to be his own twin sibling Trevor when Sally interviews him for the documentary
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Eddie's three friends from the neighbouring power plant (Chatty, Sickly and Worried) bear similarities to characters from the series.
- Chatty is the chubby one, and he tells what he thinks are interesting stories in strange ways, making him the Spudgun of the group, although Steven O'Donnell plays the incompetent chef in this film.
- Sickly fills Dave Hedgehog's shoes, being the shortest and also telling odd stories, only more sensibly than Chatty.
- Even though Nigel Planer had no role in Bottom, Worried serves as a stand-in for Planer, being the tallest of the group, being the most concerned about the effect the power plant's poor maintenance is having on the environment like Neil Pye, and acting as a voice of reason for Chatty and Sickly like Ralph Filthy, as well as having a gruff and stoic attitude in both cases.
- Threesome Subtext: The Post-Credits Scene implies Gina takes turns with the duo.
- Vomit Chain Reaction: The guests, after being served radioactive fish.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: And the film is happy to show you the results. For about ten minutes solid.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The location of Guest House Paradiso is not revealed other than that it is in a coastal area, althoug the building used is on the Isle of Wight.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Fawlty Towers. There's a nasty hotel manager, his long-suffering sidekick, a dodgy sign out front, a dotty old guest who drinks too much, an alcoholic chef who destroys most of the food, at least two couples with active sex lives and an attractive foreigner who gets sexually assaulted. Take away any sense of class or decorum and you've got this movie in a nutshell.
