Groom Service

It's impossible to analyze this film without breaking it down into its four segments for separate comment. It would also be improper, since it was not intended to be anything less than an anthology from four notable independent filmmakers: Alexandre Rockwell, Alison Anders, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino.

The first episode is exactly the sort of thing that someone in a high school drama production would want to do, but can't get away with in a high school drama production. It's juvenile, unfunny, and lifeless, but it has the (pointless) nudity and lines of dialogue like:

Witch #1: "I am your mother."

Witch #2: "Then why are we sleeping together?"

that sound like the screenwriter is giggling and thinking, "I can't believe I'm getting away with this! I'm so clever!"

Nothing is at stake in the first episode; it's generally expected that a story must have conflict in order to BE a story. This has none. Just some half-baked jokes and a pair of topless women (If I wanted that, I'd skip renting a movie and go out instead.)

Second episode is a hair better, but you'll find yourself crying "Why doesn't Ted the Bellboy do [insert plot resolution here] and get the bloody hell out of there!" When it finally does end, you're disheartened to find that it had no reason to exist. Two snips with a pair of scissors, a bit of tape, and we wouldn't know the difference. Roll opening credits, go straight to the Rodriguez segment.

Third episode has some structural support to keep it from caving in on itself. The surprise in the middle (I won't give it away, don't worry) is horrifying enough to give the segment some heft. Rodriguez and his d.p., Guillermo Navarro, move it along dexterously and (as usual) have a good handle on visual comedy.

The last segment is the best. I think it's safe to say that Quentin Tarantino has, officially, never disappointed me as a director or screenwriter. My heart leapt as soon as I heard his trademark dialogue coming from the lips of Marisa Tomei as "Four Rooms" segued from "The Misbehavers" to "The Man From Hollywood." I wasn't sure if his take on Ted the Bellhop's misadventures was going to be any good, but I knew that if he wrote it and helmed it, it wasn't going to be all bad.

What a pleasant surprise (still just talking about the fourth segment here). This part of the movie, with its ridiculous premise (lifted form an old Hitchcock episode, which it acknowledges out loud), moves along speedily, and the actors take to it as naturally as any other movies by Q.T. Basically playing himself, Tarantino is hilarious. If anything, he knows A) how people really act when they're drunk (i.e. not like Dudley Moore caricatures) B) why people think he's so obnoxious, like a real-life, fast-talking Jar Jar Binks and C) how to put some bang in his visual storytelling. It's low-rent Tarantino, don't get me wrong, but it's also the best part of "Four Rooms."

All in all, the first film I've ever seen that starts out with a loathsome, horrifying badness, gets incrementally better with each passing fifteen minutes, and ends as good as one would like. Just don't make me watch it again.

First Story- * 1/2 out of ****

Second Story- ** out of ****

Third Story- ***1/2 out of ****

Forth Story- **** out of ****

This film is strange, but it gets better as it goes along. It is difficult to get into, but once the viewer gets into it, it is a funny, disturbing, and unique film. The plot is basically of a bellboy(played by the always good, Tim Roth) who has to take care of a hotel for the night on New Years Eve. He gets involved in some strange and off-color characters and slowly is driven insane by it all. There are four stories total. he first one is about a coven of witches who must find semen for their magic potion to resurrect a model. The second is about a suspicious husband who ties his wife up and holds a gun to the bellboy's face because he thinks she is cheating on him with the bellboy, only the bellboy soon discovers that this is just a weird trick. The third story(and by for the goriest) is about a rich man and his wife leaving his children alone at the hotel with the bellboy to babysit. And the forth is about a macabre bet involving a bunch of Hollywood yuppies, a car, a lighter, and removal of body parts.

The first story is really only for certain audiences. I didn't dig it, but I could see why certain people may. The jokes about sex and possible incest were tiresome, the witches were stereotypes and were poor ones, and the camera angles were terrible never allowing the audience to really get into the story. The reason why is because it is shown at a fly-on-the-wall distance and for a plot involving witches it helps to know what they are up to in a closer way. Normally this cinematic approach would work well, most noticeably the brilliant Peter Greenway film, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER, which the movie strongly reminded me of for some reason and Tim Roth was also in it.

The second story was very perverse but didn't offer any way to involve the viewer in actually finding it interesting which it should have been. There is a sequence in which Tim Roth is put to inane stunt-work where he must get himself back into the apartment, even though he is falling out of it through the window. The stunt seems misguided and out of place in the drama of this story. The ideas are good, but the execution didn't quite work. Some pretty strange intensity by Jennifer Beals here.

The film takes a large jump forward into sharp comedy and independent ideas. The tone was mean-spirited and wicked. The children were appropriately mischievous and the father(Antonio Banderes) was nuts. The camera work was involving, and the comedic notes were hit correctly. The story worked and the viewer will have it stuck in their minds for days if they can't make it to the next story.

The best of the four is the last one, with quick and sensible dialog, an inspired plot, appropriate acting, and an off-kilter ending that is shocking, brutal, and brilliant.

Rated R for pervasive strong language, sexuality and some drug use.

I really don't understand why this movie got such bad reviews! Overall, this is a creative and refreshing movie. It is not Pulp Fiction but it is still a good performance. Tim Roth, especially, is the best thing in the film. Out of the four I like Robert Rodguize's misbehavior the best. The missing ingredient was indeed a bit cheesy but the rest are still above average performance. If you are interested in this movie but discouraged by the movie critics, I ensure you that you won't regret seeing it.

I seem to recall that when "Four Rooms" came out, it was critically and commercially derided. When I saw it a few months later, I actually thought that it was pretty well done. I knew that Quentin Tarantino was involved in the making, so I could safely assume that there was an element of sleaze in the movie.

Well, the movie is likely to blow anyone away, just in terms of how far they go. Portraying bellhop Ted (Tim Roth) and his loony experiences on New Year's Eve while waiting on several people in a hotel, they blow everything out of the water. The first two segments are pretty lowbrow: the first one portrays a witches' coven and the second one portrays a psychopath who thinks that Ted had sex with his wife.

But when we get to the third segment, that's where the movie really takes off. Ted has to watch the children of a slick Mexican guy named Man (Antonio Banderas). After a few incidents, Man comes back and finds the room in the most mind-blowing scene imaginable. And, the last segment. Ted, in a totally frenetic state, goes to a room where several Hollywood guys are having a discussion (with as many curse words as possible). What happens at the end of that segment...well, let me just tell you that no one sees that coming! All in all, people who think that the movie didn't go anywhere obviously missed the point. I don't know for certain whether this movie was just an excuse to be crazy, but it sure seemed like that. You're sure to have fun watching it. Also starring Madonna, Valeria Golino, Jennifer Beals, Salma Hayek, and even Quentin Tarantino in the final segment playing a Hollywood type.

Four Rooms, the 4 part directed, 4 part written mix-matched movie turns out to be an awesome combination. With Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino working on this film, you seem to expect a trigger-happy film festival with plenty of bombs and explosives to spare. But what the final product turns out to be is a laugh-out-loud comedy which follows a bellhop's mishaps one night as he scrambles to keep his hotel in order. Tim Roth is always a great performer and in this movie there is no difference. Kudos indeed.