Directors: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Summary: Left alone on New Year’s Eve, a bellhop (Tim Roth) must watch over the entire hotel including a coven of witches, a couple caught in a psycho-sexual drama, a pair of misbehaving children and a drunken celebrity entourage.
I thought I was going to like Four Rooms more than I actually did. The idea of creating an anthology with four writer/directors sounds like a good one, but in practice I just felt it made for a pretty inconsistent movie. Unfortunately, the movie starts off with the weakest of the four chapters. Although it had some good moments, the tale of the witches’ coven trying to resurrect a powerful witch fell flat for me. In some ways I guess it was a good decision to start the movie off with the witch story. After all, Four Rooms was released the year after Pulp Fiction and a few months after Desperado. Combined with the fact that it also stars both Tim Roth and Antonio Banderas and you are going to have a lot of people expecting it to be a violent crime thriller with a comedic streak. However, as soon as The Missing Ingredient starts you know that you are in for something completely different. The first thing you’ll notice is that Roth has more in common with Jerry Lewis than Mr. Orange. At first I did not really like the slapstickiness of Four Rooms, but I actually found Roth’s performance, in particular, started to grow on me about halfway through the second chapter (The Wrong Man). It actually makes me wonder if I’d have appreciated The Missing Ingredient more if I’d had more reasonable expectations for what the movie is supposed to be. None of that changes the fact that neither of the first two chapters hold a candle to The Misbehavers (Rodriguez) or The Man from Hollywood (Tarantino).
Somewhat surprisingly, I think my favourite segment actually was The Misbehavers, if only for Antonio Banderas in what has turned into one of my favourite of his performances. In fact, the entire sequence hints at the aptitude for children’s entertainment that Rodriguez would later show with Spy Kids. Of course, that is not to say his chapter is at all appropriate for children, but I think it has the best balance of slapstick darker, more violent humour that many viewers would be hoping for.
The Man from Hollywood is another great segment, benefitting from Tarantino’s witty and face-paced dialogue and his ability to draw out a scene, building the tension before a sudden outburst of violence. By this point in the night the Bellhop is at the end of his rope, growing a bit of a spine and, resultantly, toning down the Jerry Lewis aspects of his character. You’d think, given my feelings at the beginning of the film, that I would be glad of this, but surprisingly I was actually a little disappointed – I had grown to like the awkward and neurotic Bellhop. Although The Misbehavers is the most balanced of the chapters, I think The Man from Hollywood works really well as a conclusion, almost acting as a summary of the thesis of the movie (in as much as it has one). Through the dialogue, Tarantino actually elaborates on his appreciation of Jerry Lewis, while the plot mirrors a Hitchcock episode. There is no mistaking, at any point, that you are watching Tarantino’s segment – his signature is all over everything – but he also manages to lay out the goals of the entire project, wrapping it all up with a nice blood red bow.
All in all I’d say that Four Rooms is worth a watch if readily available, but unless you just have to see all of Tarantino’s or Rodriguez’ movies there is no need to go out of your way to see it.
Writers: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Summary: Left alone on New Year’s Eve, a bellhop (Tim Roth) must watch over the entire hotel including a coven of witches, a couple caught in a psycho-sexual drama, a pair of misbehaving children and a drunken celebrity entourage.
I thought I was going to like Four Rooms more than I actually did. The idea of creating an anthology with four writer/directors sounds like a good one, but in practice I just felt it made for a pretty inconsistent movie. Unfortunately, the movie starts off with the weakest of the four chapters. Although it had some good moments, the tale of the witches’ coven trying to resurrect a powerful witch fell flat for me. In some ways I guess it was a good decision to start the movie off with the witch story. After all, Four Rooms was released the year after Pulp Fiction and a few months after Desperado. Combined with the fact that it also stars both Tim Roth and Antonio Banderas and you are going to have a lot of people expecting it to be a violent crime thriller with a comedic streak. However, as soon as The Missing Ingredient starts you know that you are in for something completely different. The first thing you’ll notice is that Roth has more in common with Jerry Lewis than Mr. Orange. At first I did not really like the slapstickiness of Four Rooms, but I actually found Roth’s performance, in particular, started to grow on me about halfway through the second chapter (The Wrong Man). It actually makes me wonder if I’d have appreciated The Missing Ingredient more if I’d had more reasonable expectations for what the movie is supposed to be. None of that changes the fact that neither of the first two chapters hold a candle to The Misbehavers (Rodriguez) or The Man from Hollywood (Tarantino).
Somewhat surprisingly, I think my favourite segment actually was The Misbehavers, if only for Antonio Banderas in what has turned into one of my favourite of his performances. In fact, the entire sequence hints at the aptitude for children’s entertainment that Rodriguez would later show with Spy Kids. Of course, that is not to say his chapter is at all appropriate for children, but I think it has the best balance of slapstick darker, more violent humour that many viewers would be hoping for.
The Man from Hollywood is another great segment, benefitting from Tarantino’s witty and face-paced dialogue and his ability to draw out a scene, building the tension before a sudden outburst of violence. By this point in the night the Bellhop is at the end of his rope, growing a bit of a spine and, resultantly, toning down the Jerry Lewis aspects of his character. You’d think, given my feelings at the beginning of the film, that I would be glad of this, but surprisingly I was actually a little disappointed – I had grown to like the awkward and neurotic Bellhop. Although The Misbehavers is the most balanced of the chapters, I think The Man from Hollywood works really well as a conclusion, almost acting as a summary of the thesis of the movie (in as much as it has one). Through the dialogue, Tarantino actually elaborates on his appreciation of Jerry Lewis, while the plot mirrors a Hitchcock episode. There is no mistaking, at any point, that you are watching Tarantino’s segment – his signature is all over everything – but he also manages to lay out the goals of the entire project, wrapping it all up with a nice blood red bow.
All in all I’d say that Four Rooms is worth a watch if readily available, but unless you just have to see all of Tarantino’s or Rodriguez’ movies there is no need to go out of your way to see it.
C+
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