Four stars for FOUR ROOMS? Not quite. This one was
lucky to scrape up the paltry one-and-a-half star rating it got. An
interesting concept was drug into the ground by an aimless script
and annoying lead actor. Tim "Pumpkin" Roth plays an idiotic
English bellboy trying to run a hotel by himself on New Year's
Eve. Four hot young directors (Quentin Tarantino, Robert
Rodriguez, Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell) each wrote
and directed a segment of the movie, none of which ever rise
above the level of mediocre and two of which are completely
beyond redemption.
The first, Anders' "The Missing Ingredient," is one of
those. Madonna is a witch who wants sperm... I know you're all
thinking, "Yeah, I know that, but what part does she play in the
movie?" and to that I have to say shame on you. She and the rest
of her coven meet in one of the hotel rooms to mix a witch's brew,
with one pivotal ingredient missing -- the aforementioned life juice
of a man. So one of the witches has sex with Roth. End of segment.
The whole thing is pointless and unentertaining, with Madonna
and the sexy Valeria Golino standing around, their talents
unused.
Then comes the equally-bad "The Wrong Man," directed
by Rockwell. This time Roth is the wrong man entering the wrong
room at the wrong time in the wrong movie. Some guy has his wife
tied to a chair, and goes from thinking Roth slept with his wife to
kissing Roth full on the mouth, which has to be the absolute low
point of the movie. It doesn't elevate itself too much more when
Roth tries to escape and ends up stuck in the bathroom window,
pleading the drunk man on the next floor up for help. The man
vomits on his face, physical comedy at its finest.
The third segment, Rodriguez's "The Misbehavors," is
the best of the movie, which definitely isn't a distinction to brag
about. Roth is paid to look after the mischevious children of a
Mexican gangster and his Asian-American wife. The second Roth
leaves the room, they break open the champagne, watch adult
movies, throw hypodermic needles at the painting on the wall and
unearth a dead body hidden in the mattress springs. By the time
the parents return, all hell has broken loose, although Rodriguez
never shows how Roth escapes the gangster's wrath.
He instead cuts to a phone conversation Roth has with
a stoned Marisa Tomei, in which he threatens to walk off the job
but finally agrees to take some food up to the visiting Hollywood
star in the penthouse. Begin the final segment of FOUR ROOMS,
"The Man From Hollywood." This is Tarantino's segment and he
of course plays the man from Hollywood, who shows Roth around
the room before offering him money to officiate a bet that he and
his drunken friends (one of which is an uncredited Bruce Willis)
have made. It's interesting but incredibly slow-moving except for
the ending, which is resolved in the five seconds before the credits
roll. Even Tarantino can't do much justice to a fallen movie that has
goes nowhere in ninety minutes and is only slightly entertaining
during its final half.
Copyright © 1996 Andrew Hicks