David O'ConnellA Night at the Roxbury
May 24th 2010 03:53
Expanded from a recurring ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit, A Night at the Roxbury (1998) is the giddily pea-brained story of the moronic Butabi brothers, Doug (Chris Kattan) and Steve (Will Ferrell), a pair of man-child, disco-worshipping 80’s refugees in love with poxy silk suits and spastic dance routines meant to woo women with dissolving soap-suds for brain cells.
They spend days ‘working’ (in the loosest definition of the word imaginable) for their father (Dan Hedeya) in his fake plant store whilst nights are devoted to touring the city’s nightclubs save for one - The Roxbury - where they’re always denied access. Thankfully a perfectly timed auto crash with fallen 21 Jump Street hero Richard Grieco becomes a catalyst for entry where they’re mistaken for VIPs by a couple of hotties (Elisa Donovan and Gigi Rice) looking for a leg up in the business world any way they can get it.
Not much of interest ensues: full-scale delusion kicks in, the pair imagine their lives have taken a fortuitous turn before a falling out, and then a final reconciliation that reeks of a latent homoeroticism best not explored by parents in a post-movie discussion group with their teenage children.
The film champions idiocy and to its credit doesn’t pretend to be anything more. At the same time, couldn’t we expect even a smidgen of ambition? For ultimately there’s nothing remotely surprising about A Night at the Roxbury. These juvenile misadventures of a couple of perennial virgins don’t even have the balls to threaten the boundaries of good taste, instead goofily chugging along with a succession of limp skits most probably patched together from 'Saturday Night Live' outtakes. Where are the jokes honing in on involuntary functions and bodily fluids? Talk about anachronistic! Amiably wafting about in some pathetically benign PG-zone is just a cheat. And did Doug have to be such an unlikable dick?
Kattan and Ferrell as Butabi 1 and 2
Though you could argue the film requires Doug (for the purposes of genuine torture) to bounce off Steve, it might have worked 'better' (in the loosest definition of the word imaginable) with the obnoxious Doug removed. It’s no surprise that the most sustained – and, let’s face it, only - genuine humour of the film comes during a 20 minute stretch late in the game when Doug fades into the background whilst Steve's relationship with Emily (Molly Shannon) - groomed by his parents as a prospective wife - enters a disturbing new phase.
Shannon always makes me laugh. Easily one of the most underrated comediennes of her time, she’s admirably funny as the needy girl-next-door who mutates into a domineering, career-obsessed bore once she has Steve firmly nestled under her wing. Her ecstatic scream of ‘Ikea!’ at the peak of orgasm earned the biggest laugh from me.
Kattan is an utter turn-off as Doug. I had to fend off a continual urge to toggle the 'mute' button every time he contorted his brick-sized mouth for the purposes of speech, but couldn’t stand the thought of the painful blister sure to develop afterwards. Ferrell is certainly more bearable, and watching this now, one can at least imagine a relatively fresh conception of him - one undiluted by public preconceptions and the now litany of equally moronic credits clinging like unidentifiable, smelly residue to his CV.
The film’s saving grace is its brevity, for it blissfully clocks in at less than 75 minutes. Other than for Molly Shannon completists, that’s the most positive recommendation I can give it.
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Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Absolutely Matt, it's gonna be Bergman and Kurosawa the rest of the week!!!!!!
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
Cheers.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Aside from The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World the SNL films are really just cash cows. generally speaking just a one note joke played out to feature length and Night of the Roxbury is certainly that.
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic