FOUR ROOMS
A film review by Ken Cooper
Copyright 1996 Ken Cooper
I saw this film on Christmas Day expecting an upbeat comedy. Boy was I in for a Christmas dissapointment! After an hour of the movie, I was ready to change rooms-into another theater! Read on to see what I have to say....
FOUR ROOMS:
Starring:Tim Roth, Jennifer Beals, Antonio Banderas, Quentin Tarantino, Valeria Golino, Madonna, Bruce Willis, Marisa Tomei, Alicia Witt, Lili Taylor, and Ione Skye.
Rating:* (out of **** possible stars)
"Four Rooms" was supposed to be one of the biggest hits of the year. Key word here: "supposed." Four of the biggest directors in Hollywood: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Alexander Rockwell, and Alison Anders were all directing one big film with a big and popular cast. I guess it was all just too much because this turned out to be the biggest flop of the year and it could of been great. The plot: It's New Years Eve and it's a bellboy's first day on the job. He encounters many mysterious and kinky hotel guests as he tries to handle all his own problems. Tarantino told his directors this plot, and each of them wrote a script. It turned out each of them had written a dark comedy. Anders wrote and directed the tale about a coven of witches (Madonna, Valeria Golino, Alicia Witt, and Ione Skye), which was the worst one out of all of them. The second room (Jennifer Beals) was better, but lacking in plot. This room was about a man who accuses every man of sleeping with his wife. The third room (Antonio Banderas) was the best roomm, about two rambunctous kids that trash a hotel suite. The final one (Tarantino, Willis) was about a movie star wanting the bellboy to chop off someone's finger. The movie was just plain trash. There was nothing here that even makes up a quality film. It was not funny, and I didn't hear one laugh in the theater throughout the whole film. Tim Roth is horrible as the bumbling and mumbling bellboy, and he ruins every joke in the film. The supporting cast loses meaning to the word support and the only mentionable actors/actresses are Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Beals. Marisa Tomei appears in a stupid cameo role. This movie is the worst film of the year and the film could have been great, perhaps like a more upbeat "Plaza Suite," but it wasn't. As trashy as it was, some people will call it classic. Do you call a man chopping off a finger with Madonna's chest showing a classic film?
Look for more of Ken's Kritic Korner Coming Soon! Please check the Newsgroups under the Movie Reviews Section for updated reviews.
P.S. "Four Rooms" made Number 1 on my top ten worst list of 1995.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews