A Night at the Roxbury Review
by "Luke Buckmaster" (bucky AT alphalink DOT com DOT au)May 16th, 1999
A NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY
Cast: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Dan Hedaya, Molly Shannon, Richard Grieco, Loni Anderson, Elisa Donovan, Gigi Rice, Meredith Scott Lynn, Chazz Palminteri
Director: John Fortenberry
Screenplay: Steve Koren and Will Ferrell & Chris Kattan Australian theatrical release: May 13, 1999
Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 1 and a half stars
If you fart-ass around all your life, it seems, you will be led to greater things. At least, that's what happens in A Night at the Roxbury, a comedy of errors that was a big one to begin with. There was barely enough material here to maintain a five minute skit, let alone a ninety minute feature that bumbles, stumbles and fumbles through its running time. If you're akin to this type of silly, silly humor, the film might be goofy enough to warrant a sitting - but otherwise, I'd advise everybody to stay well clear of this tiresome piece of humdrum filmmaking. In defense of the film, I can honestly say that I did enjoy it, before the ridiculously unintelligent characters became irritating, and before the script became boring and problematic. Trouble is, that happened about fifteen minutes in.
The Butabi brothers - Steve (Will Ferrel) and Doug (Chris Kattan) - are the coolest disco regulars around. At least, they think they are. Steve and Doug spend most of their nights waiting outside of nightclubs, fantasizing that one day they might run their own club. One night they are particularly frustrated for not being allowed inside the prestigious 'The Roxbury,' - the number one spot in Los Angeles - and it becomes their ultimate mission to get inside the building and party-hardy. After a lucky mishap, Steve and Doug find themselves dancing in the bright lights of The Roxbury, with two women (Elisa Donovan and Gigi Rice) who mistake them for high rollers. The story plods along, and Steve gets caught in a marriage he doesn't really want to commit to, and Doug becomes even greater a social outcast.
The acting by Saturday Night Live regulars Will Ferrel and Chris Kattan is predictably awful; the only time they appeal is amongst the bright and blurring lights of discos. Granted, there is not much they could have done with their irritatingly simplistic dialogue. Most prominent in the film's many flaws is its script, which succeeds in creating two daft characters who appear as foreigners even in their own environments. What it doesn't do is make their wacky adventures very interesting. Unlike the colorful escapist film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the world in A Night at the Roxbury doesn't offer Steve and Doug enough obstacles to encounter. That makes the film's jokes rely almost entirely on dialogue, which is rarely funny. To give you an example of the type of humor A Night at Roxbury generates, I'll close with a short conversation between the two main characters:
Doug: You can take our car, and you can take our keys, but you cannot take away our dreams!
Steve: Yeah, because we're sleeping when we have them!
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Review © copyright Luke Buckmaster
Read more of my reviews at In Film Australia
http://infilmau.iah.net
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