Review of Four Rooms (1995) by Ross M — 09 Dec 2008

I cannot believe this flopped. It is one of the funniest films I have ever seen!

It invloves Ted the bellboy who endures a very bad, and as a result, very funny new year's eve.

Each room is is different from the last and therefore the overall film doesn't lose any of its momentem. I enjoyed all 4 of the rooms, including the first one, which I find very under-rated. Some say it ruined the fillm. Although I think it isn't stand out, it is still good, and comes no where near ruining this film.

The honeymoon suite-The Missing Ingrediant: This is the first room. The supposed 'let down' of the film. It involves a coven of witches who all because of one member, have to post-pone the ritual. I actually liked it quite a lot. It is still very funny, like when Ted the bellboy is left alone with one amature witch and has to donate the missing ingrediant to her. What follows is seduction, because in one of the most weird elements of the film, the ingrediant they need is sperm.

Although it is the least funny rooms of the film, it is still great in its own right and has some good direction and writing, although sometimes the writing can be rather cheesy.

Room 404-The Wrong Man: This is where the film really takes off. After the first, relatively good room for him, Ted stumbles his way into another hilarious (for us) room, where he is mistaken for someone hes not. In the room is a drunk man and his bound and gagged wife. Unfortunatly, the man has a gun, and starts accusing Ted of sleeping with his wife. What then ensues is over ten minutes of amusing mayhem.

This room invloves much more of Ted, which imeadiatly gives this film a positive boost. The acting, directing and writing is all far better than the first room aswell as being much more of an interesting room. Although it may not sound as interesting and as far out as the honeymoon suite, it is, and that is partly because of the simplicity of it.

Room 309: The Misbehavers: The best room of the film! This is the first film to actually make me crack up with laughter, instead of just making me snigger.

This room invloves some kids of a very tempermental dad and their much calmer mum, a large sum of money for tempting Ted to look after the children and a very nasty smell.

This room is by far the best room of the film. The direction issuperb! Robert Rodriguez does a fine job of directing and the two children are surprisingly good as the annyoing, "misbehavers" of the title. It also involves one of the best scenes in the film, where Ted tracks the bad smell down to a very horrific discovery.

Penthouse-The Man From Hollywood: This is the second best room of the film, and almost of the same level of brilliance as room 309. It involves a film star (played by Quentin Tarantino) and his friends who gets Ted involved in a very odd bet in return for a large sum of money.

Of course it has the the QT trademarks which makes it as enjoyable as his feature length films. The writing and directing fantastic, which is what you would expect from a Tarantino piece, the acting is good too, especially from an uncredited Bruce Willis, who really adds another notch of enjoyment to the room.

Order from greatist to least great:

Room 309.

Penthouse.

Room 404.

Honeymoon Suite.

Overall, this is a very good, highly original modern masterpiece which does not deserve the hatred it gets.