Guest House Paradiso – It just didn’t work (for me)

'Guest House Paradiso,’ or, as was added later on the video box, ‘The Bottom Movie.’ I’ve been a fan of ‘Bottom’ (and before that ‘The Young Ones’) ever since it first crawled onto our televisions screens.  So, like many, I was happy that the hideous Richie and Eddie had made it onto the big screen.  I remember back in 1999 when it came out that it only received a luke-warm reception, but I saw it anyway.  My reaction – it just left me a bit cold.

It’s not a ‘Bottom’ movie.  The characters, although basically identical to the Richie and Eddie that we know and love, have different surnames.  It would be a bit simplistic to say that the movie failed on account of that one minor point, but, for some reason, I can’t really think of anything else.

Guest House Paradiso was not a commercial or critical success at the Box Office.  I decided to watch it again because I enjoyed re-watching the series recently.  I was surprised when I saw online how well-received it actually was.  However, even from a second viewing over fifteen years later, I still didn’t ‘get it.’

And I don’t know why.  Guest House Paradiso has everything that bottom has: the characters, the gross-out humour, the slap-stick violence and the overall feel of Bottom.  Yet it still didn’t do it for me.  Perhaps I enjoyed seeing Bottom in ‘smaller doses.’ The half hour runtime of an average TV episode seemed just right.  Maybe I found that stretching the concept out for an hour and a half was too much?

Yes, there are funny bits and I did smile.  It’s stupidly dumb, but it never tries to be anything else.  Despite my love for the Young Ones and Bottom, I have yet to warm to this big screen version.  But, if you’re thinking of watching it, based on what I’ve seen I am now in the minority.  It seems that Guest House Paradiso has found its market at last and time has been more forgiving than the critics at the time and me now.  I’ll always have a special fondness for the antics of Richie and Eddie, just not here.  Sorry, boys.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back