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Rating: PG-13
Director: John Fortenberry
Writers: Steve Koren, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan
Stars: Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell,
Release Date: October 2, 1998 (United States)
Run time: 1 hour, 22 minutes
THE PLOT:
(via wiki)
Steve and Doug Butabi are sons of a wealthy businessman and in their spare time, enjoy frequenting nightclubs, where they bob their heads in unison to Eurodance, a European subgenre of EDM, and fail miserably at picking up women. Their goal is to party at the Roxbury, a fabled Los Angeles nightclub where they are continually denied entry by a hulking bouncer.
By day, the brothers work at an artificial plant store owned by their wealthy father, Kamehl. They spend most of their time goofing off, daydreaming about opening a club as cool as the Roxbury together, and Doug using credit card transactions as an excuse to flirt with a card approval associate via telephone that he calls “Credit Vixen.” The store shares a wall with a lighting emporium owned by Fred Sanderson. Mr. Butabi and Mr. Sanderson hope that Steve and Emily, Sanderson’s daughter, will marry, uniting the families and the businesses to form the first plant-lamp emporium.
After a day at the beach, the brothers decide that night was to be the night they would finally get into the Roxbury. Returning home, Doug gets into a heated argument with their father about going out clubbing instead of staying home. Their father has planned a dinner party with Emily and her parents. The angered Mr. Butabi then refuses them access to their BMW and their cell phones. They are given enormous cell phones by their mother, Barbara, and allowed use of the plant store’s Ford Econoline delivery van. The brothers go to the Roxbury when they are asked their names, being told they’re not on the list and are denied entry.
After discovering that they might bribe their way into the club, the brothers drive around looking for an ATM slamming on the brakes again and again while in traffic causing them to get into a fender-bender with Richard Grieco. Grieco explains to the girl with him in the passenger seat that his Ferrari is a racing car and therefore illegal. To avoid a lawsuit, Grieco uses his fame to get them into the popular club. There, they meet the owner of the Roxbury, Benny Zadir, who listens to their idea for their own nightclub. He likes them and sets up a meeting with them for the next day. The brothers also meet a pair of women at the Roxbury: Vivica and Cambi, who see them talking to Zadir and think that the brothers are rich. The women later sleep with Doug and Steve, leading the brothers to think they are in serious relationships.
On the way to the after-party at Mr. Zadir’s house, the brothers annoy his driver and bodyguard Dooey by making him stop to buy fluffy whip and making jokes about sleeping with his parents. As revenge, the next day, Dooey refuses them entry into Zadir’s office for their meeting. He tells the brothers that Zadir was drunk out of his mind last night and does not know who they are. In reality, Zadir wanted to see them, but does not have their contact information.
Vivica and Cambi break up with the Butabi brothers after realizing they are not actually wealthy. Afterwards, the brothers argue over who is at fault for their sudden misfortune and Doug moves out of their shared bedroom and into the guest house. Meanwhile, Steve is forced into an engagement with Emily by his father. The wedding is held in the backyard of the Butabi residence, but is interrupted by Doug. The brothers reconcile and leave, but their friend and personal trainer Craig, reveals his feelings for Emily, and marries her. Afterwards, Grieco consoles Mr. Butabi to help him understand that Steve was not ready for marriage, and that Butabi is too hard on Doug.
After the Butabi brothers reconcile with their father and Doug moves back into their bedroom, the film ends as the brothers happen upon a hot new club. The building is unique in that the exterior is constructed to resemble the interior of a nightclub, and the interior resembles a street—this was an idea pitched by Doug and Steve to Zadir earlier in the film. Attempting to enter, they’re asked their names and much to their surprise are told they are on the list. They walk into the club where they find Zadir and Zadir reveals that to reward their idea, he has made them part-owners of the club. Their new-found success comes full circle when they meet two women in the club: Doug’s phone operator from the credit card company (“Credit Vixen”) and a police officer with whom Steve flirted while getting a ticket.
My Review:
I have a soft spot for this movie. First, I know a guy who looks strikingly like Chris Kattan and I cannot help but think of him when I see this movie. That thought makes me laugh. Second, despite the night club lifestyle being completely outside my personality and character, I enjoy late 90s dance club music immensely. I think that enjoyment is ironic, but it’s hard to tell. The soundtrack to this movie is excellent.
Those are the positives. Most of the rest of this movie is a really rough and bordering on unwatchable. Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan took their head-nodding SNL night club characters to the big screen and I have no idea why. The sketch was always very, very thin on laughs, and stretching that comedy out into an 82 minute movie did not improve things. The movie is not aging well, either. A quarter century on, I suspect some of this movie’s comedy – such as it is – is lost to time.
The weird thing about the film is that both its leads are very funny. Obviously Will Ferrell went onto bigger and better things. He became probably the top comedic box office draw for a decade, at least. Chris Kattan was poised to do bigger and better things, too, before a freak neck injury derailed his health and his career. Despite the funny leads, though, almost nothing about this film works. Neither lead is funny and I think that’s because Ferrell and Kattan don’t have on-camera chemistry. The movie is so unfunny that I spent time while watching it, thinking about how these two guys had to be actual real life friends to convince someone to put this abomination into theaters. Yet, on-screen, they look like they just met and are uncomfortable with each other. Chemistry is weird and hard to understand. You either have it or you don’t. You can even have it and appear not to have it.
One other massive problem I had with the movie was its inclusion of Molly Shannon. I don’t hold it against anyone who thinks she’s funny. To each their own. However, from my perspective, she’s one of the least funny “funny people” of all-time. The more she is a part of something, the less I am likely to like it. The best that can be said of her role in the film is that you’re not supposed to like her character, so I guess on that front, the movie succeeds.
Overall, I do not recommend A Night at the Roxbury. I think you could syphon off whatever enjoyment it might bring by just pulling up the soundtrack on Spotify without subjecting yourself to it. It’s not funny to the point of distraction, the lead actors do not have chemistry with each other, and the plot’s attempt at heart does not deliver anything. I very much doubt I will ever willingly watch this again.
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