When I was in high school, anything Tarantino-related was required to be memorized. Yes, even this one was insisted upon in high school, though perhaps not as strongly as QT's first two. This portmanteau follows bellhop Tim Roth as he gets into several adventures over New Year's Eve. I remember liking this one quite a bit, but, viewing it now, it's just too uneven to be worthwhile. Anders' first segment is easily the low point, thankfully. Any film starring Madonna should be immediately suspect, and everything about this tale of witches is awful. Rockwell's segment is a bit of an improvement, but too forgettable. Rodriguez's segment is the one I remember being the best, and it thankfully does hold up okay. Antonio Banderas is hilarious in it, and most of the jokes hit. I remember QT's segment being the worst originally, but I actually thought it was by far the best this time around. It usually gets flack, I think, because it stars Tarantino, but he's comfortable here playing a pompous movie director. It's honestly his best performance (if it had been readily available, I might have suffered through Destiny Turns on the Radio again) and his direction is pretty brilliant. The one thing that really drags this whole movie down is Tim Roth. Man, I remember loving him when I was a teenager, and, though I criticized his performance in Reservoir Dogs above, he's on Olivier's level there compared to his awful mugging here. Even if QT's segment were the weakest, it would automatically be upgraded to the strongest just because he's the only one who settles Roth the crap down, a bit at least.
Review of Four Rooms
