Four Rooms

A very weak affair. An unimaginative shot-in-the-dark short story, which then as now attracted attention only by a bunch of familiar (but not interesting) names brought together. To start, we have a moment from the witches' coven, Madonna teases, Ione Skye shows her breasts and Valeria Golino is a familiar face, but no one knows her by name nowadays... and this group isn’t able to do anything together. Absolutely nothing. We continue with a story about how the couple has fun letting a busboy peek into their sex games, and yes, Jennifer Beals was and is sexy, but nothing more. Then we witness Rodriguez's prequel to Spy Kids. Okay, then. And the ending? He tries to convince us, in the words of Quentin himself, that Four Rooms is not complete bullshit, but rather that it holds together. That is the biggest mistake of all. (04/06/2017)

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)

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)

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)

For me, the four stories are qualitatively quite uneven, and it is quite apparent what interests the individual creators. Tarantino revels in dialogues that can go ad absurdum, which is confirmed here by a fairly good story. Rodriguez, on the other hand, does not deny his love for B-movies, but there is also no lack of humor or fantastic ideas. Nevertheless, the stories remain qualitatively quite uneven for me, and Tim Roth, although I like him, was rather annoying. In the end, it is still a little above average. (01/02/2014)