Attack of the B's!

Four Rooms (1995), Alison Anders/Alexandre Rockwell/Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino

One movie, four directors. Tim Roth plays Ted the Bellhop, the only character appearing in all four segments. Anders and Rockwell's contributions were really too boring to even bother explaining in depth. A coven of super-babe witches and a role-playing couple, respectively. Rodriguez's segment was the best- a pair of really, REALLY mischievous siblings toying with the poor bellhop. If you think little kids smoking, drinking, and saying "fuck" a lot, watching the porno channel, and basically raising as much hell as possible is as hilarious as I did, I think you'll agree with me. Tarantino's segment was classic QT. Long takes, dialogue-heavy, bare feet, drug use, the use of the word "fuck" over a hundred times, white Honda Civics and old GM's, a 1960s media reference, I could go on.

Four Rooms bombed at the box office, despite the impressive ensemble cast. The movie is really not anything mind-blowing. The first half is terribly boring. It was a good idea, executed poorly by Anders and Rockwell. I heard a rumor that the part of Ted the Bellhop was written with Steve Buscemi in mind. One can only imagine how much better this movie would have been without Tim Roth spazzing his way through this movie like a coked-up Jerry Lewis. I think that any Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration is pretty much pure gold, so you might as well just skip ahead to the 3rd and 4th stories, if you feel you must watch it.

Best Line: "Impossible! You can't see shit! Now GO to SLEEP!" -Ted the Bellhop

Grade: C