Four Rooms

Four Rooms is an auteur film, meaning that the director makes a film for the author, their relatives, and closest friends. Fortunately, in America, it works a bit differently, so this time four directors came together, each to shoot a story set in one room of the same hotel. It's a black comedy involving a corpse, a severed finger, marital crises resolved through bondage and firearms, and a bet involving a meat cleaver. The weakest story is attributed to Allison Anders, simply because her witch tale lacks a strong point. Fortunately, Quentin Tarantino balances it out by poking fun at himself, and I just hope that lost bet didn't hurt him too much. A decent cast, and several nice scenes. Overall impression: 60%. (04/12/2007)

Sometimes about nothing, sometimes lacking a point, the lines go over my head and two good stories simply aren't enough for me. The film as a whole lacks atmosphere and one man is to blame - Tim Roth. His sidekick is just a silly caricature trying to look like a mix of Rowan Atkinson and others like him, but instead it oozes awkwardness. (17/07/2006)

It's an old song, but I found it to be quite true and I'll briefly repeat it: the first episode resembles a mediocre student film in content, the second one clumsily tries to build up the situation with some cool dialogue and has nothing to say, the third one is a lot of fun with Banderas's performance and a very funny punchline to the final joke, and the fourth one is an above average scene from any Tarantino feature, ending with one of the funniest moments of his entire career. Something like a somewhat routine hotel tour, where each floor represents a higher level of directorial talent, and in sum, it's just enough for 3*. (29/11/2017)

The first two short stories are just awful rubbish and not worth mentioning, with the third one brilliantly escalating (Tim Roth vomiting and screaming "What the fuck is this?!" totally cracked me up) and opening the door to the mega-chatty and fantastically onanistic fourth short story with a famous ending by Tarantino. During this one I almost forgot about all the ballast at the beginning. (10/10/2011)

The opening story is really weak, the second one is better and the third and fourth ones don't have a single flaw. Whether it's Rodriguez's smoking and drinking kids or Tarantino's playful long takes, it's finally fun and a joy to watch. Plus, we get some pretty impressive points, and both men also seemed to know how to tame Tim Roth, because he suddenly became a slightly more tolerable bozo in their rooms. I also praise the hilarious opening "pink-panther" credits. (06/02/2016)