WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY :
Allison Anders (The Missing Ingredient)
Alexandre Rockwell (The Wrong Man)
Robert Rodriguez (The Misbehavers)
Quentin Tarantino (The Man from Hollywood)
MUSIC BY: Combustible Edison
STARRING:
RUNNING TIME: 98 Minutes
DISTRIBUTED BY: Dimension Films
Four Rooms follows a night in the life of Ted, the bellhop at a hotel on new years eve. As the film opens he is being given some advice from an old and experienced co-worker. Little does he know that over the course of the night he will end up doing nearly everything that his colleague warned him against. First a coven of witches need him to help them secure an ingredient that they need to mix their witches brew. Than he walks into the middle of a rather harsh lovers quarrel, so harsh that the man has a gun to Ted's head. Than a Mexican gangster and his wife convince (intimidate) him into baby-sitting their two unruly children. Finally a drunk Hollywood star and his friends ask him to settle a very unusual, and dangerous, bet.
Four Rooms had its genesis with Quentin Tarantino. While writing Pulp Fiction he was planing to have a different director direct each segment. Eventually he decided to direct all of the segments himself, but hung onto the idea of making a film with different segments each by a different director. After Pulp Fiction became a big hit he decided to use his clout to make a film with different segments each directed by some of his film-festival buddies.
Allison Anders (Mi vida loca ) wrote and directed the first segment, "The Missing Ingredient". This segment is the most low-brow of the 4. It has some nubile young ladies baring their breasts for an extended period of time and lots of dirty jokes. Also something that comes as completely unexpected to most viewers is that these women are not just some bunch of crazy ladies who believe that they are casting spells. But though some intentionally cheesy special effects they are casting spells that work.
The second segment comes from Alexandre Rockwell (In the Soup) and has Ted delivering some ice to an irate husband (who has a gun) who thinks that Ted is the man who his wife is cheating on him with. What at first looks like it could be venturing into Resorvoir Dogs territory quickly turns to farce as the man has a heart attack while Ted is trying to escape, only to find that the wife still loves the man, even though he is a gun wielding lunatic. Rockwell cast his wife Jennifer Beals as the wife.
The third segment has Robert Rodriguez returning to his short-film roots with a slapstick story about mischievous kids. When Ted agrees to baby-sit the kids he quickly gets more than he bargained for when the kids find a dead whore (Robert's sister Patricia Vonne Rodriguez) under their bed, and a drug needle in the dresser. They than light the room on fire just as Dad returns. After their success on Desperado he casts Antonio Banderas as the tough-guy father.
For the final segment Tarantino took his inspiration from an old Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode called "The man from Rio". In this cast Tarantino spoofs himself as an obnoxious movie-star, who makes a bet with a member of his entourage based on the classic episode. The bet is that the man can light his lighter 10 times in a row. If the lighter lights each time the man get's Quentin's classic sports car. If it fails to light the man's finger will be cut off. Bruce Willis appears unbilled and Jennifer Beals reprises her role from her earlier segment.
The movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 16, 1995; it premiered in America December 25, 1995; and just like that other critically acclaimed film-maker who decided to release a low-brow comedy in 1995 both critics and audiences hated it. The critical reviews all over the map with regard to the different segments. The first 2 were almost universally dismissed as crap. The last 2 were given slightly better marks, with the general consensus that Rodriguez's was the best of the 4. The movie made just $4.301 million at the box office. Since than it has been somewhat rediscovered on video. It has not become a full blown cult-classic, but now that people can view it without all of the Tarantino-mania associated with it's release they can judge it on it's own merits. Many of those people still think that it is not a good movie but their is a minority who thinks that it is a very underrated and funny movie, and I am proud to count myself among that minority.