The Quentin Tarantino movie you probably forgot about Bruce Willis in

After the collapse of the studio system, when actors finally had more autonomy over their careers and much more freedom in choosing the roles and films they would appear in, the real test for an actor was what happens if and when they achieve megastardom. Some stars love being in the spotlight so much that they try to give their audience what they think they want to see over and over again, and in doing so, they can end up feeling burnt out or too typical. Others become much more withdrawn, either flat-out refuse low-paying work, or are very picky about their projects. Then there are those stars who manage to straddle the line between the commercial and artistic sides of their vocation and are able to parlay their newfound influence into a mix of roles that showcase not only their range, but also their creative curiosity.

At the peak of his screen career in the 1990s. Bruce Willis was undeniably one such starbalancing his action hero image in Die Hard and its several sequels with bold twists in films such as Death Becomes Her and 12 Monkeys, as well as appearing in edgy films such as The Color of Night , The Sixth Sense, The Fifth Element. These latter films demonstrated his interest in working with filmmakers with distinct voices, a desire that led him to appear in Quentin Tarantino’s Crime Scene. As Tarantino’s career continued after that award-winning successhe has shown his own interest in creating a sort of repertory company of actors such as Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and especially Samuel L. Jackson, who have appeared in three or more of his nine films to date.

Those with only a passing knowledge of Tarantino’s work might think the Willis/Tarantino team is done with Crime Scene , but there’s actually another collaboration between the two. However, you could be forgiven if you’ve never seen or heard of it; the collaboration in question is just an outtake from the 1995 anthology Four Rooms, not a full-length film, and not only that, but Willis’ appearance is uncredited!

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the Four Rooms segment marks the director’s first time tackling characters working in the film industry. That’s right; fronted by Stuntman Mike and the Women of Death Proof, Bridget Von Hammersmark in Inglourious Basterds, and nearly the entire main cast of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the Man from Hollywood segment sees Tarantino’s direct commentary on (and in this case, satirical ) show business. Tarantino plays what appears to be a thinly veiled version of himself as Chester Rush, a newly famous director who rents out the penthouse of an old (re: seedy and disreputable) Hollywood hotel, the Hotel Mon Signor. Along with his friend Norman (Paul Calderon) and the mysterious woman from an earlier segment of the film, Angela (Jennifer Beals), Rush hangs out with another friend, Leo, played by Willis.

The premise of the segment is that Chester and his friends are so fed up that New Year’s Eve that, after accidentally seeing an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode called “The Man from the South” (which the characters mistakenly identify as “The Man from Rio”), the scavenger brothers decided that they wanted to recreate the script from the Roald Dahl episode and short story on which it is based. Namely, they want poor Ted the caribbean (Roth) to be the impartial owner of the hatchet in a bet between Chester and Norman: if Norman can’t light the lighter 10 times in a row, Ted will chop off his little finger.

The segment gets its juice from the escalation, interwoven tension building and drunken mayhem as Ted is propositioned and pledged. An important component in this is Willis’ manager (or agent, or some sort of colleague) who vacillates between having a heated argument with his wife on the phone and talking to the boys. It’s a great gonzo performance from Willis, taking Tarantino’s signature punchy dialogue and amping it up with intensity and humor. Where Tarantino is crazed, Calderon laid-back, and Bills distant, it’s Willis who provides the segment with the much-needed threat of violence, hinting that anything could happen and allowing the segment’s final point to land that much harder. According to it’s a Playboy interviewWillis filmed his role in just two days. Given his busy schedule at the time, it was very fortunate that he was able to fit Four Rooms in so he could apply his talents to it.

Four Rooms has generally been shelved upon release and has not been revisited in recent years, given that it suffers from the uneven quality inherent in the anthology film. Despite the best efforts of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, none of the segments stand out quite like Tim Chianto and Garrett Hugh Evans. “Safe Haven” from “V/H/S 2” iswhich means that Four Rooms does not enjoy lasting popularity or a wave of reappraisal. Perhaps now, in its 30th anniversary year, it will receive even more appreciation, as while it isn’t great enough to be called a hidden gem of a film, it does have some great moments.

The biggest reason Four Rooms is worth rediscovering is that it’s actually a fantastic alternative New Year’s Eve movie. The plight of Ted, newly hired by unscrupulous management and having to keep his wits about him during a night that begins with a witches’ coven (in the Allison Anders segment), continues when he finds himself at the center of a couple’s strange psychosexual role-play (in the Alexander Rockwell segment). includes having to babysit a gangster’s naughty children (in a Rodriguez segment), and ends with the song “Man from Hollywood”, like any other.

If nothing else, the movie is fun to watch, especially with Willis involved. It’s a shame he and Tarantino never worked together again, given how seamlessly Willis’s interjections fit into Tarantino’s dialogue. At least we’ll always have Crime Scene and Four Rooms, and for those who haven’t seen the latter yet, your New Year just got a little more fun.