Four Rooms - [No Tickets]

A stunt anthology blunders horrifically. The four hip directors, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Andre Rockwall, and Alison Anders join forces, each directing a supposedly comic segment of this film. The setting is a posh Hollywood hotel on New Year’s Eve, and the main character is Ted the bellhop (Tim Roth). Each director tackles the hillarious goings-on in one specific room. Alison Anders’ segment is first: In the Honeymoon suite, a coven of witches (including Madonna, Lili Taylor and Ione Skye) prepare a spell to resurrect their goddess. Unfortunately, there is a missing ingredient: Ted’s sperm. The second room belongs to Andre Rockwall. An insanely jealous husband has tied up his wife and mistakes Ted for her lover. Robert Rodriguez tackles the third room, in which a Mexican gangster (Antonio Banderas) leaves his two mischievious children in the care of none other than Ted the bellhop. The final segment is Tarantino’s, in which he himself stars as a Hollywood producer who makes a painful bet based on an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. All four stories fail…and they fail miserably. There is nary an interesting, let alone comic, moment within. Tim Roth way overplays his Cockney Jerry Lewis-ish bellboy…making the audience wince rather than laugh. Anders’ segment is simply uninvolving. Rockwall’s room is remarkably unexciting, for all the bluster and action is proposes. Rodriguez’ segment is very reminiscent of a bad sitcom with a morbid twist. Tarantino’s suffers from a bit too much self consciousness. He throws in 25 minutes of meaningless pop culture references, plus his own horrific acting. Both of these overwhelm any sense of entertainment you can gleam from the meager plot. Avoid this film.