Four Rooms

I'm wrapping up my Hateful Eight week with a look back at an earlier collaberation between Quentin Tarantino and Tim Roth. A rare flop for Tarantino, it's 1995's anthology comedy Four Rooms.

This gimmick of a movie took four hotshot directors who made it big at Sundance, Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders, and Alexandre Rockwell, and have them each create a story set at one hotel on New Years Eve. The stories are all tied together by Ted the bellhop, Tim Roth. Ted, a bumbling idiot, is working solo and it's his first night on the job.

Anders is up first with her story The Missing Ingredient. A coven of witches, led by Madonna, are attempting to resurrect the spirt of a burlesque performer. The witches have all the ingedients needed except the semen of a righteous man. It's up to Eva, Ione Skye to seduce Ted to get what they need.

Rockwell is up next with The Wrong Man. When delivering ice to the wrong room, Ted accidentally walks into a lovers spat between a couple, Jennifer Beals and David Proval. The husband thinks that Ted is his wife's lover and threatens his life. What seems like a spat starts to feel like a sex game between the couple and Ted desperately tries to find a way out.

Rodriguez directs the third entry, The Misbehavors. Another couple, Antonio Banderas and Tamlyn Tomita, are in need of a babysitter and call on Ted to watch their rambunctious children. Needing to man the front desk, Ted tells the children to call him if they need him. The two kids get into all kinds of trouble involving champagne, a hypodermic needle, a porn channel, a fire, and a dead prostitue buried in their bed.

The final story, directed by Tarantino, is called The Man From Hollywood. Tarantino also pops up playing a Hollywood director. He and his entourage, which includes Bruce Willis, make a bet. One of the directors buddies, Paul Calderon, bets that he can light his zippo ten times in a row. If not, he gets a finger chopped off. Since the group is incredibly drunk, they ask Ted if he can do the chopping.

This is kind of a hit or miss movie. The last two segments are very entertaining, but the first two are just so so at best. The film was a huge flop with critics and fans. Tim Roth is great in this. More of a dramatic actor, Roth seems to be having a lot of fun as Ted. And it's fun to see this goofy bellhop get in and out of these situations. Steve Buscemi was originally slated to be Ted, but since he played a bellhop in Barton Fink, he didn't want to repeat himself.

It was originally going to be named Five Rooms with Richard Linklater directing a segment, but he passed on it. I'm surprised they didn't call it Six Rooms and try to get Kevin Smith as well.

It's hard to make a project like this totally work. Twilight Zone:The Movie and New York Stories both tried the popular directors doing an antholgy angle with mixed results as well. I think Four Rooms is definately worth a look though. Especially for the last two stories and Roth's performance.

It's available on dvd and is steaming on Netflix.