A Night at the Roxbury

Starring: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Clarke Duncan, Richard Grieco, Loni Anderson, Dan Hedaya, Colin Quinn, Eva Mendes, Mark McKinney, Chazz Palminteri (uncredited)
Directed by: John Fortenberry
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
1998

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two brothers (Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan) plot to get into the most exclusive club in town, The Roxbury.

Review:

Tim: It took me an extremely long time to finally see A Night at the Roxbury. I think I had an impression of the movie from seeing pictures and short clips from the film. I sat down hoping it would reverse the trend of most Saturday Night Live movies and actually be decent. Unfortunately, my hopes were unfounded. This is a stupid, unfunny movie and is surprisingly bad considering how many times I see it pop up in various forms.

This movie suffers from the same main issue that so many SNL movies have been unable to avoid- it's based on a few minute sketch. No matter how funny an individual sketch might be, it's hard to extend that into a feature length film. It's obviously been done successfully before, but it's really hard. I don't believe there was enough in those sketches to support a full movie, even one that is very short, at 1 hour, 22 minutes. You can stretch and expand and try as you might, but the story of the Butabi Brothers simply isn't interesting or funny enough for an entire film. Even if there are funny moments (look how embarrassingly naive they are! Look at those head bops!), it eventually wears too thin. It makes a movie like this feel twice as long because there's not enough here to maintain our attention.

The other big issue is that the Butabi Brothers aren't even worthwhile characters. They're caricatures, they're pathetic morons whom we're supposed to like for some reason. Why would I care about either one of them? They aren't good people, they're not even sweetly dumb, they're just dumb. They are the kind of people who embrace their ignorance and yet, we're supposed to care about them, root for them, become invested in their story? The film never gives us a reason to care. When the two central characters are dumb and somewhat unlikable, your movie is going to struggle.

I'm struggling to recall specific funny moments in this movie. Sure, a few of the lines connect and there is something entertaining about watching these two imbeciles at a club, but man, those moments make up about 2% of the overall film. The rest of the movie is a mess. It's boring, it's clunky, and it's unfunny. Many of the "funny" situations the brothers find themselves in are so detached from any kind of reality that you marvel at the logic gaps in the script. Maybe the story of Steve and Doug could have worked, but the story concocted for these idiots certainly doesn't do them any favors. It's not a story as much as an excuse to get these two into a club so they can do that thing that everyone liked during the SNL sketches. It's just a total mess.

I suppose Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan deserve some credit for fully embracing these absurd roles? I don't know, they certainly seemed to put a lot into the performance. They weren't great, but you can tell they wanted the roles and the movie to work. It's unfortunate that it absolutely did not. The supporting cast was fine, but they have nothing to work with. I like Dan Hedaya, Jennifer Coolidge, and Eva Mendes (I don't like Molly Shannon) but no one could look good with such crap to work with.

There are certainly worse SNL movies out there (looking at you, Superstar), but this one is really bad. I disliked watching it immensely and the only good thing about seeing it is that I can check it off the list and never need to watch it again. It's so dumb.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Blues Brothers, The Ladies Man, Superstar, Wayne's World