This film has an interesting premise - four separate rooms with four unique stories told by four different directors. The setup, however, collapses under its own weight, as the differing viewpoints and various styles just confuse each other, leading to an unsatisfying payoff.The directors are talented, the actors do their jobs just fine, but the gimmicky nature of the film makes it difficult to fully enjoy. It becomes kind of a circus. I'd say the best part is the finger scene at the end, but you have to get through the whole movie just for that.I would recommend viewing each directors' work separately, instead of this failed attempt to weave their styles together in a hotel setting.

Ted (Tim Roth) is the bellhop at the old Mon Signor Hotel in Hollywood. Elspeth (Madonna), Athena (Valeria Golino), Jezebel (Sammi Davis), Raven (Lili Taylor), and Eva (Ione Skye) are a coven of witches trying to release the goddess Diana. Elspeth brought along her daughter Kiva (Alicia Witt). Husband and wife Siegfried (David Proval) and Angela (Jennifer Beals) are role playing a fantasy game. A couple (Antonio Banderas, Tamlyn Tomita) leave to go to a New Year's Eve party and has Ted watch their kids. Ted calls his boss Betty (Kathy Griffin) and have a long talk with Margaret (Marisa Tomei). Betty tells him about important famous director Chester Rush (Quentin Tarantino) in the penthouse.Tim Roth is going insane with his performance. His manic energy gives this a drive. However the disparate stories rambles on and on. It's a mess and not a compelling one. Tim Roth's strange act is weird but it gets tiresome. That's basically the whole movie. The witchy start is a simple sex romp. Beals and Proval are boring. The movie loses my interest. The kids are OK and they end with a fun scene. Then Tarantino loses me completely. There is maybe one passable story or one and a half at most. There are too many boring parts in this.

At the early point in the careers of Alison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino they all came together to make this anthology film. It's a frame story where we follow the nameless Bellhop (Time Roth) through the night as he interacts with the different bizarre tenants of the hotel ranging from drunk Hollywood directors to witches.There's not much linking the different stories other than cameos from the some similar characters between sketches, a few references to previous segments and the constant presence of our nameless bellhop. Other than this, each sketch follows its own distinct style and story to give the filmmakers greater control of their own shorts. This is partly beneficial as it creates originality. But it also lacks consistency between segments, with even the character of the Bellhop's personality switching between segments. The Missing Ingredient- By far the weakest segment, it follows a Covent of witches who need to complete a ritual. However they are short of a mans semen and decide to get it from the bellhop. The entire sketch is mostly annoying from start to finish through its mixture of bad performances and dreadful writing from Alison Anders. There's not even many jokes in this segment and most of the attempts at humour were creepy. 4/10The Wrong Man- When the bellhop goes to the wrong room, a couple forces him to join in on their strange game. This time the sketch does actually have good performances with David Proval giving an enjoyably over the top performance. But unfortunately he doesn't have much to work with as just like Anders segment, Rockwell made a weak script that's light on jokes. 5/10The Misbehavers- The bellhop must look after a pair of kids, so their parent (Banderas) can have fun at a party. But every time he leaves the room they both get into more and more trouble. This is where the film becomes enjoyable and has some entertaining situation comedy moments. It's like a prototype version of Spy Kids (albeit with some adult humour thrown in) showcasing Rodriguez great flare for slapstick style comedy. It's witty, memorable and is enjoyably eventful. 6/10The Man from Hollywood- This is by far the films greatest segment. Mostly based around a Hitchcock episode by Roald Dahl, Chester Rush (Quentin Tarantino playing a parody of himself) wants the bellhop to cut off their friends finger if he loses the bet. The segment is well made with many of Tarantino's usual traits being present in the film and includes one impressive long take to open the scene. On top of this it follows a very tense build up before getting to a very enjoyable and funny pay off. 8/10It's very much a roller-coaster film, with some high points but also some low points. The first 2 segments are dull and unenjoyable. But then it does pick up for both Rodriguez and Tarantinos segments. Whilst it may not feel like it at first, the film is worth watching with some memorable and entertaining moments picking up speed as it goes.

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.