Groom Service

Rodriguez’s and Tarantino’s stories are good, the other two are average, Tim Roth, on the other hand, was awful. He overacts a lot, jerking his body and head like a moron and making all sorts of stupid jokes. I guess it was supposed to be funny, but it was awkward and it made this whole, otherwise quite cool little movie, frustrating. Four stars without Roth! (13/01/2003)

Sometimes about nothing, sometimes lacking a point, the lines go over my head and two good stories simply aren't enough for me. The film as a whole lacks atmosphere and one man is to blame - Tim Roth. His sidekick is just a silly caricature trying to look like a mix of Rowan Atkinson and others like him, but instead it oozes awkwardness. (17/07/2006)

Four Rooms is an author's film. In Czech conditions, it usually means that a director makes a film for the author, their relatives, and closest friends. Fortunately, it works slightly differently in America, so this time four directors came together to shoot a story set in the same hotel room. It's a black comedy with some dead body, a severed finger, a marital crisis solved with bondage and a gun, and a bet using a meat cleaver. The weakest story is Allison Anders' responsibility, simply because her witch story has a weak punchline. Fortunately, Tarantino balances it out by making fun of himself, and I just hope that the lost bet didn't hurt him too much. Decent cast, a few nice scenes. Overall impression: 60%. (04/12/2007)

It’s such a shame that the quality of the first two stories doesn’t come anywhere near the work of Tarantino and Rodriguez. All right, there is one word is more fitting – average. Apart from Roth’s hamming, almost nothing happens. Luckily my expectations were not that high, and I just took it as a necessary debut movie, until the action hurricane with the slick Banderas and the ending where Tarantino reels off one snappy line after another. As a Quentin fan I really enjoyed the last bit, maybe almost as much as he did himself. Tons of cues and heavily improvised monologs (excuse me, monolog) in one take and faultless choreography. That’s why I gave it the fourth star, I can’t say no more to defend it. (29/03/2010)

A very weak affair. An unimaginative shot-in-the-dark short story, which then as now attracted attention only by a bunch of familiar (but not interesting) names brought together. To start, we have a moment from the witches' coven, Madonna teases, Ione Skye shows her breasts and Valeria Golino is a familiar face, but no one knows her by name nowadays... and this group isn’t able to do anything together. Absolutely nothing. We continue with a story about how the couple has fun letting a busboy peek into their sex games, and yes, Jennifer Beals was and is sexy, but nothing more. Then we witness Rodriguez's prequel to Spy Kids. Okay, then. And the ending? He tries to convince us, in the words of Quentin himself, that Four Rooms is not complete bullshit, but rather that it holds together. That is the biggest mistake of all. (05/06/2017)

The opening story is really weak, the second one is better and the third and fourth ones don't have a single flaw. Whether it's Rodriguez's smoking and drinking kids or Tarantino's playful long takes, it's finally fun and a joy to watch. Plus, we get some pretty impressive points, and both men also seemed to know how to tame Tim Roth, because he suddenly became a slightly more tolerable bozo in their rooms. I also praise the hilarious opening "pink-panther" credits. (06/02/2016)

It's an old song, but I found it to be quite true and I'll briefly repeat it: the first episode resembles a mediocre student film in content, the second one clumsily tries to build up the situation with some cool dialogue and has nothing to say, the third one is a lot of fun with Banderas's performance and a very funny punchline to the final joke, and the fourth one is an above average scene from any Tarantino feature, ending with one of the funniest moments of his entire career. Something like a somewhat routine hotel tour, where each floor represents a higher level of directorial talent, and in sum, it's just enough for 3*. (29/11/2017)

The first two short stories are just awful rubbish and not worth mentioning, with the third one brilliantly escalating (Tim Roth vomiting and screaming "What the fuck is this?!" totally cracked me up) and opening the door to the mega-chatty and fantastically onanistic fourth short story with a famous ending by Tarantino. During this one I almost forgot about all the ballast at the beginning. (10/10/2011)

For me, the four stories are qualitatively quite uneven, and it is quite apparent what interests the individual creators. Tarantino revels in dialogues that can go ad absurdum, which is confirmed here by a fairly good story. Rodriguez, on the other hand, does not deny his love for B-movies, but there is also no lack of humor or fantastic ideas. Nevertheless, the stories remain qualitatively quite uneven for me, and Tim Roth, although I like him, was rather annoying. In the end, it is still a little above average. (01/02/2014)