Four Rooms

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with Ted the Bellhop (Tim Roth) in a room filled with hotel memorabilia, talking to Sam the Bellhop (Marc Lawrence) about what a bellhop is. It's New Year's Eve."The Missing Ingredient" begins with a bunch of women (including Madonna and Lili Taylor) converging in the Honeymoon Suite, where there's a huge cauldron in the room's center. The women send Ted to get a bunch of ingredients, mostly from the kitchen. With the ingredients in hand, the women, some of them topless, enact a ritual. They are witches. One says they intend to reverse the spell that turned their goddess Diana into stone in this very room 40 years ago.The witches dance around, then they begin putting ingredients into the huge cauldron. Alas, Eva (Ione Skye) was required to get the key ingredient: fresh semen, but instead of keeping the sample, she swallows it. Ted returns to the room. A witch gives him a $50 tip, telling him that he has to make Eva smile. The witches leave Ted alone with Eva, whom Ted tries to entertain by acting silly. Eva says it doesn't matter if she smiles or not, and explains that she and her friends are a coven, as well as the situation with Diana. After Ted resists Eva's advances, she casts a spell on him, causing him to be swept away with her. Ted kisses Eva.Later, we see them kissing some more. Ted leaves the suite as the witches plus one more return. Eva says she's a woman now, telling them that she and Ted did it in the cauldron. The witches continue the ritual. Diana rises from the cauldron in physical form.The second segment is "The Wrong Man." Ted walks into a darkened room 404. The light comes on. A man (David Proval) points a gun in Ted's face. A woman (Jennifer Beals) is tied to a chair and gagged behind the man. The man swallows some pills. He accuses Ted of being the woman's beau. She is the man's wife. Ted says there's a mistake. The man hits Ted in the face with the gun, knocking him down. The man pulls Ted up and says he demands an apology. He puts the gun down and has Ted mouth an apology for saying he f---ed another man. The man tells Ted not to move a nose hair, picking up the gun. The man dances over to the bathroom. The woman mumbles at Ted and he pulls the gag from her mouth. She tells him to untie her. He argues that they're complete strangers, and she says, "it's where we end up that counts." They realize the man is coming back, and Ted puts the gag back into her mouth.The man catches Ted doing this and points the gun at him. He tells Ted to "nibble" on his wife. The man calls Ted "Theodore." Ted corrects him, telling him to call him "Ted." The man says his name is Siegfried. He agrees to call Ted by his chosen name. He then kisses Ted, twitches, says "my heart," and collapses. He tells Ted to get his nitro pills in the bathroom. Ted enters the bathroom and searches the medicine cabinet. He sees the window and worms his body halfway through it. Ted notices a man halfway out of the window above his window. Ted asks the man to call the police. The man twitches and vomits, just missing Ted, who jumps back into the bathroom.Ted exits the bathroom, finding the woman and Siegfried on the floor. He picks the woman up and ungags her. She yells at him to get the nitro pills. Suddenly, Siegfried stands up. He tells them it was a test, saying he's happy because he knows the woman loves him now. The woman takes a wry attitude, accusing Ted of having sex with her. Ted asks what he ever did to her and Siegfried. The woman mentions that Ted has "a huge cock." Ted denies this. Siegfried tells Ted to show him his cock. The woman does, too. Siegfried tells her to stop talking about Ted's cock. The woman then says countless synonyms for the phallus, driving Siegfried into a fit. Ted sees an opportunity and hurries out of the room.The third segment, "The Misbehavers," starts with Ted answering a call at the front desk. A man (Antonio Banderas) orders a bottle of champagne. His wife (Tamlyn Tomita) combs her and the man's son Juancho's (Danny Verduzco) hair, trying to get the right look. The man takes over combing Juancho's hair, while the wife goes to work on their daughter Sarah's (Lana McKissack) hair. The man and wife finish the kids' hair. The kids go into the other room to watch television. The wife asks the man if they're going to have fun tonight. The man mentions that they could leave the kids in the room with the television set.The man tells the kids that he and his wife are going to leave them alone and to be in bed before midnight. He tells them, "Don't misbehave." Juancho opens a window, saying it stinks in the room. The man comes back in, saying, "Behave." Ted arrives with the champagne. The man gives Ted $500 to check up on the kids every thirty minutes. The man and his wife leave. Ted and Sarah argue a bit as to when the kids should call him. Ted says to call only when necessary, and if the kids are good, he'll bring them some milk and cookies. He leaves. Sarah tells Juancho that his feet stink.Juancho turns on a station on the TV with a half-naked female dancer (Salma Hayek) dancing. Sarah calls Ted on the phone, telling him to turn "the nudie station" off. The kids keep complaining about the bad smell in the room. Sarah finds a syringe in a drawer and calls Ted to mention it to him. Ted tells her not to bother him again unless it's an emergency. Juancho shakes the champagne bottle until it blows its cork. He drinks some champagne.The kids use a framed picture in the room as a target to throw the syringe at. Ted comes back with milk and saltines, telling the kids that they're going to bed. The kids dislike the saltines. Ted has the kids lie down and tells them to close their eyes. He pulls out some mentholatum ointment. He dabs the ointment over their eyes, telling them not to open them or it will burn. Ted exits the room. Fireworks go off outside the room's window.Sarah walks with her eyes closed to the bathroom and rinses them off. She opens her eyes. She turns on the TV and drinks some champagne. Juancho steps to the bathroom and washes his face off, too. Vexed by the bad smell in the room, the kids get off of the bed. Sarah pulls the bed's top mattress aside and they find a dead woman stuffed in its bottom mattress. Sarah calls Ted, who becomes livid. Sarah tells Ted to get his ass to the room.A discombobulated Ted sees the man walk into the hotel, carrying the passed-out wife. Ted runs to the elevator and goes upstairs. He rushes into the room to find Sarah drinking and Juancho smoking. Ted slaps the cigarette out of Juancho's mouth. Sarah moves the bed's top mattress aside and reveals the dead woman. Ted vomits. He knocks the champagne bottle out of Sarah's hand. Champagne spills from the bottle, and some of it moves toward the lit cigarette on the floor. Ted calls the police, saying there's a "dead whore" in the room. Sarah tells Ted not to call her a dead whore. Ted does it again, so Sarah stabs him in the leg with the syringe.Ted screams, dropping the telephone. He steps on the TV's remote, accidentally changing the TV to the station with the dancing woman. The man gets to the room's door, carrying his wife. Flames erupt around the room due to the champagne catching fire. Ted grabs the dead woman's leg and yanks the syringe out of his thigh. The man walks in to see Ted standing with his hand on the dead woman's leg, along with the syringe in his other hand, Juancho smoking, Sarah holding the champagne bottle, the "nudie station" on the TV, and the room on fire. The man asks, "Did they misbehave?"The last segment is "The Man From Hollywood." Ted knocks on a penthouse door. The formerly tied-up woman from the second segment opens the door and announces that the bellhop is here. Mens' voices shout in appreciation and Ted steps into the penthouse. The actor Chester Rush (Quentin Tarantino) struts over to Ted and offers him some Cristal that Ted refuses at first, but later drinks. Chester invites Ted in and introduces him to his friends: the woman whose name is Angela, Norman (Paul Calderon), and Leo (Bruce Willis).Chester notices a bottle of Cristal has gone flat and goes off on a tirade against his friends for leaving it open. He opens another bottle of the champagne. Chester talks about his movies. Ted shows Chester and Norman the objects he's been asked to bring to the room, which include a block of wood and a sharp hatchet. Leo argues in a bedroom with his wife over the phone, and it ends badly. Leo has a temper tantrum, yelling and cursing.Leo asks Ted if he's seen a TV episode called "The Man From Rio" starring Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen. In the episode, Lorre makes a bet with McQueen that McQueen can't light his cigarette lighter ten times in a row. If McQueen lights his lighter ten times in a row, McQueen gets Lorre's car. If he doesn't, Lorre gets to chop off McQueen's pinky. Leo says Norman has bet his pinky that he can light his cigarette lighter ten times in a row. Either Norman will do it, thus winning Chester's 1964 Chevy Chevelle or not, getting his finger cut off, as in Lorre and McQueen's bet. Ted tells the guys that they're drunk. Norman says they'd probably chicken out if they weren't intoxicated. Chester says in the event that Norman loses his finger, after they put it on ice, it can hopefully be reattached.Chester says the men want Ted to be the finger-cutter, since he's a neutral stranger. Ted says, "I've gotta get out of here" and runs to the door. Chester offers Ted $100 to sit and listen to what he has to say. Ted sits down. Chester stacks a thousand dollars on the counter, and persuasively asks Ted if he'll want to remember for the rest of his life that he refused it for a second's work. Ted agrees to be the finger-cutter.The men get into their positions. Norman gets his thumb on his lighter and flicks it once. It doesn't light, and Ted instantly drives the hatchet through Norman's pinky, severing it. Norman screams in agony. Ted scoops up his money and sashays off, getting onto an elevator. Leo and Chester scramble to get the shrieking Norman and his severed pinky into the elevator.

Tags: cult, comedy, psychedelic, satire

Review:
Consisting of four 20-minute segments, each assembled by a different director's hands, it takes us through the various happenings inside separate rooms of the same hotel on New Year's Eve, as experienced by Ted, the only bellhop still left standing for the night shift.
It's almost as though Alexandre Rockwell isn't sure whether he wants us to be in on the whole set-up with Sigfried and Angela, or confused and in the dark like Ted, and in the end tries to accommodate both perspectives, which doesn't really wash.It's once we reach the second half that the true quality really starts to seep its way in, and the film suddenly becomes very rewarding.
'The Man from Hollywood', meanwhile, is equally brilliant - Tarantino's vibrant, well-scripted take on Roald Dahl's chilling short story, 'the Man from the South', which pits Ted in the same room as cocky Hollywood director Chester Rush (and it's always a treat to see Quentin himself tackle such a winking, self-depreciating role).
It is hard not to come away with the impression that all four directors had a slightly different take on Ted's disposition - he goes from being timid and impressionable to obtuse and jumpy, then highly-strung and a little devious, and finally composed and relatively rational - but Roth does well in single-handedly bridging these gaps and, with the many mishaps his character has to endure over the course of the night, ensures that all changes in temper seem understandable.
He retains his good-natured lovability for the entire running time, and, for anyone who can really relate to poor Ted (like yours truly), he'll have you rooting for him to the very satisfying end.To my knowledge, there was never any other film quite like 'Four Rooms' and, judging by just how unwelcome this one was made to feel when it arrived, there probably won't be another for quite some time.
It remains an ambitious and not entirely successful little sleeper, but has a good deal going for it nonetheless, and I urge all fans of Tarantino, Rodriguez and Roth in particular not to be put off by the bad press and to give it a chance.
I was impressed that Tarantino built up his suspense "before" the contest began and then did not try to extend the suspense but ended things on the first attempt.The best bit in the whole film might be Roth's phone call to his boss.
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.
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).
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.
Four Rooms was concocted like one of those many, many collaborative efforts from directors in the 60's and 70's (i.e. The Witches, Ro.Go.PaG, Boccaccio '70, etc), except this would revolve around a bell-hop on New Years Eve. It disqualifies itself as being any kind of masterpiece or classic in independent film-making, and sometimes the filmmakers (Alison Anders, Robert Rodriguez, and Alexandre Rockwell, and Quentin Tarantino, the last two also serving as executive producer) look like they're relishing too much in their (limited) clout and exuberance to concentrate.
But what I found in it was a bizarre little comedy that wasn't so bad after all."Four Rooms" is an anthology film with four 'episodes' about a fading hotel on News Years Eve, and with a quirky bellhop named Ted (Tim Roth) and his misadventures on this one crazy night.
Like many I got suckered into watching this film from the list of stars and director/writers (esp Tarantino) that participated in this exercise.I had no idea that it was *this* bad.
The third plot was a shaggy dog story that could have worked had it been better executed and the fourth one, Tarantino's, to be fair actually sustained about 5 minutes of interest - unfortunately at the very end of the movie after 90+ minutes of endless torture.Those last 2 plots might have been worthwhile except for the smarmy self-indulgent performances of the stars.
(3/10)Segment#3: The MisbehaversBelieve what others have written, this IS the reason to watch this movie, brilliant non-stop hilarity as Tim Roth's Ted the Bellboy is left in charge of two brat-ish troublesome kids.
Tarantino's segment is good enough, lots of experiments with primary colours and long stedicam tracking shots, but you can't help thinking the film is just pandering to Tarantino's ego (he play's the biggest star in Hollywood).
(8/10)To finish, Four Rooms would have been better if they had scraped the first two monstrosities (Anders and Rockwell where riding the coattails of Rodriguez and Tarantino anyway and have no where near as much talent) and kept the film as an hour-long TV special.
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.
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.
The feeling is one of 'anything for a laugh', yet the writing is wincingly unfunny, and the four different directors are simply not in sync (not with each other nor with the material), particularly Quentin Tarantino, who stars in and directed the final segment and appears to be winging it.
Antonio Banderas is surprisingly good, and the whole segment has a great way of piling on the complications to create a chaotic ending.The fourth segment will make you puke, watching Tarantino thinking he can act.
It was really one of the worst things I've seen today.The third story was a little bit better, this time it was directed by someone who does know a little about film-making.
The other really annoying facet of the movie, and it would have been funnier played straight, was bellhop's Tim Roth dancing around all the time and playing the fool,like the "rubbber-band man" from the recent Staples commercials.
I think in summary this movie is a level above most comedies its a bit black, but look at the cast, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth and Madonna - with all the other glitz and glamour of Hollywood appearing at different periods.
Tim Roth is downright atrocious as Ted the bellboy, who ties together four different segments set at the same hotel on New Year's Eve, but the role itself is unplayable because it's more a combination of flails and ticks than an actual character.
1st room just painful to watch 2nd room again nothing interesting very bad 3rd room had some funny moments and 4th room is the only room you feel directors work , the ending shot was very good but that's it .
the only thing that was really really good in the movie was the music and Tim Roths overacting if you like him you gonna enjoy it .
He took this unexpected fame and influence and used it unite a group of indie up-and-comers - Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell and Robert Rodruguez - for an offbeat anthology film about a young bellhop named Ted (Tim Roth) and his encounters with the various oddballs staying at his hotel.The result was Four Rooms, and there's a reason Tarantino chooses to forget his own segment behind the camera when his trailers announce the new film as the nth of his career.
He ends up being involved in four different stories as the night goes on, every one of which is like a single short film.The first room ("MISSING INGREDIENT") starring Madonna is an part-erotic story about a coven of witches trying to resurrect a goddess.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino, and starring himself and Bruce Willis tells a story about a crazy bet, our Ted gets involved in.
Strong 9/10As you can see, the further into the film, the room is better, but it's still hard to give an overall grade for a movie that included amazing Tarantino short, great Rodriguez one and two very decent, and even bad (the 1st one) ones.
And the pervasive language is the worse in the first two episodes I have to say.Two good things that connect all four rooms, are the music and Tim Roth, in a very weird but great performance.I hate to say but the overall grade has to be 6+Rent it, for the third and fourth room!.
Ted the Bellhop (Tim Roth) is Working overtime in a old-fashioned L.A. Hotel in New Year's Eve. He meets all of sorts odd-balls in that unforgettable, strangle night for better or worse.This is actually a compilation of four short films are linked by the point of view of Ted. This could have been first-rate but sadly it's not.
Ted has to check every half-hour in their room if they don 't misbehaved but there's strange smell in that room that becomes stronger by the minute.The fourth story "The Man from Hollywood" is actually pretty good.
Ted is called for the biggest suite in the hotel to served some strange people (Jennifer Beals, Paul Calderon and uncredited Bruce Willis) and a hot tempered Hollywood director (Tarantino) but they dare Ted to play a dangerous game for quick cash.Roth's performance is different in all four tales but he's way over the top in the first two stories.
Fourth story is fun to watch Tarantino, who was on top of the world for film-making in the 1990's and it ends with a great gag."Four Rooms" is a curio to say the least.
i like strange movies, and in the case of four rooms, it's both good and bad.The scene before the beginning credits was funny, and a great way to start off a film like this.But then we go to our first room.
Antonio Bandera's final line was just amazing.The following part where Ted calls his supervisor is almost just as funny, featuring a wonderful cameo with the great, but always underrated, Kathy Griffin.The final room was a perfect way to end this movie.
Allison Anders is known mostly for her television work, Quentin Tarantino tends to recycle the same violent and absurdist formula over and over - but he does it well enough, Rodrigues has made some of the most brilliant action/comedies I have seen, and Alexandre Frank is more of a writer than a director - and has made about as many films as Tarantino makes in a couple of years over the last twenty years.Remarkably, Tim Roth, and the nicely focused setting and theme, allow this odd little film to hold together nicely.
The directing and writing are solid, and Tarantino's piece is better-scripted than some of his more popular works.The cinematography is all fairly good, and emphasizes Roth's weirdness very well.Roth's performance is way over-the-top, which seems very appropriate by the time you get about halfway through the film.
More of a slapschtick homage to The Keystone Cops, this over-the-top episode was directed by SIN CITY director Robert Rodriguez  who loves to direct Antonio Banderas (they worked together on El Mariachi and Desperado.) Probably one of the more laugh-out-loud endings of the four.The final short is "The Man From Hollywood" directed by and starring Quentin Tarantino (KILL BILL).
But i can't simply because of the first two segments.Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez are the two reasons that this movie is even worth watching.Robert Rodriguez throws his stylistic direction around very nicely, the cuts are clean and the comedy is good amongst the characters.Now Mr. Tarantino does another one of his classic dialouge driven pieces and it's great.
Four Rooms is a quite unusual dark comedy: it features Tim Roth as Ted the bellhop, who has to work at New Year's Eve. The movie chronicles his experiences in four particular rooms...The first two episodes (written and directed by Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell), in which the protagonist is involved in a bizarre ritual and subsequently held hostage by a psycho, are decently acted by Lili Taylor and Jennifer Beals, but apart from that there's no particular reason to watch them, in fact after the first viewing they're totally skippable; the other two, on the other hand, are good: in "The Misbehavers" (by Robert Rodriguez), the absolute best of the four stories, Ted has to deal with Antonio Banderas'nightmarish children, while in "The Man from Hollywood" (by Quentin Tarantino) he helps Chester Rusch (QT himself, who's enjoyable, but outacted by everyone else in the room) with a macabre bet...Rodriguez and Tarantino's segments are stuffed with black humor, extreme characters and ace acting (Tim Roth is terrific as the increasingly hysterical Ted) which make Four Rooms a very interesting film.
1}everyone badmouths the first segment....i'll join them...it sux...its totally boring and just does not go with the rest of the film 2}everyone also badmouths the second segment also...i wont join them...i think that the wrong man was the 2nd best in the movie, it has plenty of twists and turns and never a moment of boredom 3}the best by far just blows the others away with the comedy...the ending made me laugh till my sides hurt 4} this one was pretty good, the ending was best, but this one cant top numbers 2 and 3 the end.
This film is so diverse and comic at the same time that it makes it a great movie to watch especially for all the Tarantino and Rodriguez fans such as myself.
Of course you must also admire the fantastic cast such as Madonna, Banderas, Bruce Willis, Tarantino, etc as a true masterpiece.What is the most intriguing fact is the comments i've heard of this film as being a waste of time and a total disaster, can't truly be justified when you admire the coming together most of all of two demented, twisted but very imaginative minds such as the ones of Tarantino and Rodriguez in such an epic described as "the man from hollywood" and "the misbehavers".This film is a beauty of directing, screen play and acting and shouldn't be judged only on superficial simplicity as it is more complex than you think if you really wanna get the full gist of it..
This flick is a composite of 4 different stories, directed by 4 different directors, taking place in 4 different hotel rooms (hence the title) in a hotel on New Years Eve, where apparently the only help is a harried bellboy, played masterfully by Tim Roth.
Antonio Banderas is terrific as the father of the two little 'misbehaviors'.The Man from Hollywood, while better than the first two stories, is probably the most disappointing, only because it's from Quentin Tarantino who I expected more from.
20 out of 10.All in all, watching "four rooms" is watching four movies from four very different directors, sewn together by Roth's over-the-top performance as Ted the bellhop.
It is New Years Eve and Ted, The Bellhop (Tim Roth of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction,) is left alone in this hotel that , on this particular night, is filled with some interesting characters.
Upon viewing, i realised that it was an amazing film, which has now become one of my favourite movies of all time.Let me first say that Tim Roth is the actors equivalent to God. Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and now Four Rooms.
This was the best segment in the movie, although it ends abruptly.The second story, written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell, has Ted the bellhop delivering ice to the wrong room and being accused by the husband of having an affair with his wife (Jennifer Beals).
It's like a more adult version of the kind of humor Rodriguez used in the Spy Kids movies.Quentin Tarantino writes, directs, and acts in the last story and this is probably why most people even watched this.
Such is the case with Four Rooms.The film opens with Ted the Bellhop (Tim Roth) taking over the job of bellboy in an almost whimsical hotel on New Years Eve. The cartoonish opening credits cue in, and it all goes downhill from there.
I personally think that Rodriguez should have just made the entire film himself.The final segment titled 'The Man From Hollywood,' was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the genius behind such movies as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill.
Tim Roth is simply magnificent as Ted and is the best thing about the film.
I've watched this movie for the third time recently (with a few years in between), and I still like it as much as the first time I saw it.It's about a bell-boy (Tim Roth) in a hotel who's about to have the craziest New Year's Eve of his life as he gets involved in four different stories all taking place that very same night.
We all agree that although some of the segments can be lacking from time to time Tim Roth makes every bit of this movie worth watching.