Grande Hotel

"Four Rooms" is far more entertaining than you would expect from its generally negative reviews. Which is not to say that any of it is a masterpiece but if you enjoyed "Love American Style" on television and are not put off by a raunchy take on that anthology concept you should make an effort to view this film. Each story is taking place in a different room of a hotel the same night. It was made between the time Tarantino made "Pulp Fiction" and worked on "Dusk Till Dawn" with Rodriquez. Many in the large cast are Tarantino and Rodriquez regulars. Here are a few of the reasons to watch each of the four stories:

"The Missing Ingredient" - Madona has simply never looked better and her "come get me" dress will burn your eyeballs. Alicia Witt plays her stock alienated teen and delivers sarcasm as only she can.

"The Wrong Man" – Alexander Rockwell directed this segment shortly after directing "In the Soup" so he already knew how to get the most out of Jennifer Beals. Her diatribe about Ted's sex organ is a cinema classic.

"The Misbehavers" – Rodriquez directs his favorite actor Antonio Banderas in something that is a throwback to classic Laurel and Hardy. Not only do his two kids misbehave when left alone in their hotel room, but their misbehavior is so comprehensive that the closing shot reveals a room of total anarchy. It is wonderful slapstick on a huge scale, with comic timing worthy of the Laural and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.

"The Man From Hollywood" – This has the best script with Tarantino reserving the best stuff for his own character. He even reprises the "tasty beverage" line from "Pulp Fiction. Beals has already found her way to this room by the time bellboy Roth arrives and she delivers more good lines. I was impressed that Tarantino built up his suspense "before" the contest began and then did not try to extend the suspense but ended things on the first attempt.

The best bit in the whole film might be Roth's phone call to his boss. Marisa Tomei answers the phone in a room full of comatose post-New Years Eve partygoers. She then does a version of her "My Cousin Vinnie" expert witness routine, this time concerning types of handguns. In the foreground the entire time are the only other conscious (but totally stoned) inhabitants of the room. They are playing against each other in a video game. One just stares in stunned fascination at the screen, holding the controller but not using it as the other player maniacally manipulates his controller throughout the entire phone conversation.

I seem to recall that when "Four Rooms" came out, it was critically and commercially derided. When I saw it a few months later, I actually thought that it was pretty well done. I knew that Quentin Tarantino was involved in the making, so I could safely assume that there was an element of sleaze in the movie.

Well, the movie is likely to blow anyone away, just in terms of how far they go. Portraying bellhop Ted (Tim Roth) and his loony experiences on New Year's Eve while waiting on several people in a hotel, they blow everything out of the water. The first two segments are pretty lowbrow: the first one portrays a witches' coven and the second one portrays a psychopath who thinks that Ted had sex with his wife.

But when we get to the third segment, that's where the movie really takes off. Ted has to watch the children of a slick Mexican guy named Man (Antonio Banderas). After a few incidents, Man comes back and finds the room in the most mind-blowing scene imaginable. And, the last segment. Ted, in a totally frenetic state, goes to a room where several Hollywood guys are having a discussion (with as many curse words as possible). What happens at the end of that segment...well, let me just tell you that no one sees that coming! All in all, people who think that the movie didn't go anywhere obviously missed the point. I don't know for certain whether this movie was just an excuse to be crazy, but it sure seemed like that. You're sure to have fun watching it. Also starring Madonna, Valeria Golino, Jennifer Beals, Salma Hayek, and even Quentin Tarantino in the final segment playing a Hollywood type.

Four Rooms, the 4 part directed, 4 part written mix-matched movie turns out to be an awesome combination. With Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino working on this film, you seem to expect a trigger-happy film festival with plenty of bombs and explosives to spare. But what the final product turns out to be is a laugh-out-loud comedy which follows a bellhop's mishaps one night as he scrambles to keep his hotel in order. Tim Roth is always a great performer and in this movie there is no difference. Kudos indeed.

First Story- * 1/2 out of ****

Second Story- ** out of ****

Third Story- ***1/2 out of ****

Forth Story- **** out of ****

This film is strange, but it gets better as it goes along. It is difficult to get into, but once the viewer gets into it, it is a funny, disturbing, and unique film. The plot is basically of a bellboy(played by the always good, Tim Roth) who has to take care of a hotel for the night on New Years Eve. He gets involved in some strange and off-color characters and slowly is driven insane by it all. There are four stories total. he first one is about a coven of witches who must find semen for their magic potion to resurrect a model. The second is about a suspicious husband who ties his wife up and holds a gun to the bellboy's face because he thinks she is cheating on him with the bellboy, only the bellboy soon discovers that this is just a weird trick. The third story(and by for the goriest) is about a rich man and his wife leaving his children alone at the hotel with the bellboy to babysit. And the forth is about a macabre bet involving a bunch of Hollywood yuppies, a car, a lighter, and removal of body parts.

The first story is really only for certain audiences. I didn't dig it, but I could see why certain people may. The jokes about sex and possible incest were tiresome, the witches were stereotypes and were poor ones, and the camera angles were terrible never allowing the audience to really get into the story. The reason why is because it is shown at a fly-on-the-wall distance and for a plot involving witches it helps to know what they are up to in a closer way. Normally this cinematic approach would work well, most noticeably the brilliant Peter Greenway film, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER, which the movie strongly reminded me of for some reason and Tim Roth was also in it.

The second story was very perverse but didn't offer any way to involve the viewer in actually finding it interesting which it should have been. There is a sequence in which Tim Roth is put to inane stunt-work where he must get himself back into the apartment, even though he is falling out of it through the window. The stunt seems misguided and out of place in the drama of this story. The ideas are good, but the execution didn't quite work. Some pretty strange intensity by Jennifer Beals here.

The film takes a large jump forward into sharp comedy and independent ideas. The tone was mean-spirited and wicked. The children were appropriately mischievous and the father(Antonio Banderes) was nuts. The camera work was involving, and the comedic notes were hit correctly. The story worked and the viewer will have it stuck in their minds for days if they can't make it to the next story.

The best of the four is the last one, with quick and sensible dialog, an inspired plot, appropriate acting, and an off-kilter ending that is shocking, brutal, and brilliant.

Rated R for pervasive strong language, sexuality and some drug use.

I've decided to review each segment separately, this may take a while so if you can't be bothered please feel free to move on, but I'm trying to save you time and money.

Segment#1: The Missing Ingredient

Aka this biggest piece of sh*t I've ever had the (dis)pleasure of viewing. If you want to see how not to make a short story then watch this segment, it's badly timed, badly judged, badly acted - just plain bad. I gave up watching the film on the first attempt because this was just awful, why the hell did they cast Madonna, avoid at all costs. (1/10)

Segment#2: The Wrong Man

Things don't get much better in Rockwell's piece, the cinematography and production design are nice but besides that the entire thing is just dull, the plot is just too deeply structured to work on this small running time. More threatening than comedic; let's move on. (3/10)

Segment#3: The Misbehavers

Believe what others have written, this IS the reason to watch this movie, brilliant non-stop hilarity as Tim Roth's Ted the Bellboy is left in charge of two brat-ish troublesome kids. Rodriguez has a great handle on the mixture of slapstick farce and black comedy that's very satisfying. Things can only get better... (9/10)

Segment#4: The Man From Hollywood ...Except they don't. Tarantino's segment is good enough, lots of experiments with primary colours and long stedicam tracking shots, but you can't help thinking the film is just pandering to Tarantino's ego (he play's the biggest star in Hollywood). But the ending works well and the tension built is fantastic. (8/10)

To finish, Four Rooms would have been better if they had scraped the first two monstrosities (Anders and Rockwell where riding the coattails of Rodriguez and Tarantino anyway and have no where near as much talent) and kept the film as an hour-long TV special. If you must watch it, fast forward the first two segments, you'll save a lot of time and effort...

Overall rating 4/10