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%. (05/12/2007)

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. (07/02/2016)

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. (18/07/2006)

It’s such a shame that the quality of the first two stories doesn’t come anywhere near the work of Tarantino and Rodriguez. All right, there is one word is more fitting – average. Apart from Roth’s hamming, almost nothing happens. Luckily my expectations were not that high, and I just took it as a necessary debut movie, until the action hurricane with the slick Banderas and the ending where Tarantino reels off one snappy line after another. As a Quentin fan I really enjoyed the last bit, maybe almost as much as he did himself. Tons of cues and heavily improvised monologs (excuse me, monolog) in one take and faultless choreography. That’s why I gave it the fourth star, I can’t say no more to defend it. (30/03/2010)

Rodriguez’s and Tarantino’s stories are good, the other two are average, Tim Roth, on the other hand, was awful. He overacts a lot, jerking his body and head like a moron and making all sorts of stupid jokes. I guess it was supposed to be funny, but it was awkward and it made this whole, otherwise quite cool little movie, frustrating. Four stars without Roth! (14/01/2003)