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Ask Movie Slate — Four Rooms
Today's Movie Slate is brought to you thanks to the collaborative effort of Bethiebo Droakir @PuffySmoosh and Rolicious
Featuring cameos from ZwitterKitsune and SketchyChangeling
This piece has been a long time coming, and you might not think much of it what with how it looks and all that, but let me tell you a story. In 2018 I gathered a couple of my friends, to do a collab update for the movie "Four Rooms". All seemed good, rather straight forward. Two of my friends got their parts finished almost immediately. But then I got wrapped up finishing commissions, couldn't get them all done in time, and I was moving to Scotland so I was unable to get my side done in time. Another one of my friends got busy too, and was unable to finish their part. Long story short, it's taken three years and a pandemic to get the time to do this. Not that I was lacking the motivation, I just simply had a discipline problem, which I think might've gotten fixed after completing the Personal Projects Project. This taught me a couple of things about myself, which if I ever make a project like this, I plan on taking into account. I have no such thing in mind as of this moment, however.
Regarding "Four Rooms" it's probably a movie that's kind of hard to tackle, because it's not just one movie, it's four all joined together thanks to the character of Tim Roth. Talking about the movie as a whole might be a bad idea, so in the spirit of the structure I will go through each part individually and concisely, like short reviews one after the other:
- "The Missing Ingredient": An absolute tonal mess that's more happily reliant in titillation and innuendo than in letting us get to know what poor Ted would be like as a character. While the strong performances from Lily Taylor and Madonna are still worth your time, the whole doesn't work at all and the supernatural twist should've stayed in the first draft, if there was even one.
- "The Wrong Man": Perhaps the worst segment of the movie, an absolute ball of cringe and unfunny lines that can only be described as the lowest point on the movie. The part where Ted gets stuck in a window screaming for help is still pretty funny though.
- "The Misbehavers": Robert Rodriguez has gone on record to say this segment was what inspired him to create "Spy Kids", and I'd believe it. If you liked those movies you'll probably love this segment, so, yeah. What the hell. This segment's great. The ending where Antonio Banderas goes back to the room and everything's in pure chaos is just pitch perfect comedic timing and pay off.
- "The Man from Hollywood": Easily the best segment of the movie, but for no other reason than it gives Ted's character a good pay off. It clashes terribly with all the other segments however, and despite it being the strongest it also showcases the biggest problem with the movie.
While really entertaining and borderline experimental in its approach, "Four Rooms" doesn't work as a whole. Taking each individual segment you can pick our choose which ones you like best, or skip forward to the parts of the movie you enjoy. This is the sort of movie that may benefit from watching on streaming and having it split in chapters, or parts. The character of Ted is played really likeable by the wonderful Tim Roth, but he's such a flat-line that it's easy to follow him from segment to segment without needing anything else from the movie. Still, I can sort of recommend it for what an odd product of the 90's it is, a time where the budget didn't matter as much as just getting your idea done.
Today's Movie Slate is brought to you thanks to the collaborative effort of Bethiebo Droakir @PuffySmoosh and Rolicious
Featuring cameos from ZwitterKitsune and SketchyChangeling
This piece has been a long time coming, and you might not think much of it what with how it looks and all that, but let me tell you a story. In 2018 I gathered a couple of my friends, to do a collab update for the movie "Four Rooms". All seemed good, rather straight forward. Two of my friends got their parts finished almost immediately. But then I got wrapped up finishing commissions, couldn't get them all done in time, and I was moving to Scotland so I was unable to get my side done in time. Another one of my friends got busy too, and was unable to finish their part. Long story short, it's taken three years and a pandemic to get the time to do this. Not that I was lacking the motivation, I just simply had a discipline problem, which I think might've gotten fixed after completing the Personal Projects Project. This taught me a couple of things about myself, which if I ever make a project like this, I plan on taking into account. I have no such thing in mind as of this moment, however.
Regarding "Four Rooms" it's probably a movie that's kind of hard to tackle, because it's not just one movie, it's four all joined together thanks to the character of Tim Roth. Talking about the movie as a whole might be a bad idea, so in the spirit of the structure I will go through each part individually and concisely, like short reviews one after the other:
- "The Missing Ingredient": An absolute tonal mess that's more happily reliant in titillation and innuendo than in letting us get to know what poor Ted would be like as a character. While the strong performances from Lily Taylor and Madonna are still worth your time, the whole doesn't work at all and the supernatural twist should've stayed in the first draft, if there was even one.
- "The Wrong Man": Perhaps the worst segment of the movie, an absolute ball of cringe and unfunny lines that can only be described as the lowest point on the movie. The part where Ted gets stuck in a window screaming for help is still pretty funny though.
- "The Misbehavers": Robert Rodriguez has gone on record to say this segment was what inspired him to create "Spy Kids", and I'd believe it. If you liked those movies you'll probably love this segment, so, yeah. What the hell. This segment's great. The ending where Antonio Banderas goes back to the room and everything's in pure chaos is just pitch perfect comedic timing and pay off.
- "The Man from Hollywood": Easily the best segment of the movie, but for no other reason than it gives Ted's character a good pay off. It clashes terribly with all the other segments however, and despite it being the strongest it also showcases the biggest problem with the movie.
While really entertaining and borderline experimental in its approach, "Four Rooms" doesn't work as a whole. Taking each individual segment you can pick our choose which ones you like best, or skip forward to the parts of the movie you enjoy. This is the sort of movie that may benefit from watching on streaming and having it split in chapters, or parts. The character of Ted is played really likeable by the wonderful Tim Roth, but he's such a flat-line that it's easy to follow him from segment to segment without needing anything else from the movie. Still, I can sort of recommend it for what an odd product of the 90's it is, a time where the budget didn't matter as much as just getting your idea done.
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