I’ll make this brief, everyone has one or two movies that they know suck but like anyway. Maybe it was due to when they watched it, who they watched it with or what they were taking when they saw it. But everyone has a couple of guilty secrets that they drag out periodically when no-one is looking.
I actually have heaps myself, and I know that Roxbury in reality is quite crappy, but every time I watch it I laugh out loud at least 5 or 6 times. I could reel off 10 supposed “classic” comedies where I can’t even crack a smile.
A Night at the Roxbury follows two idiot brothers, Doug and Steve Butabi, who are in early adulthood but still think that validation only comes through acceptance to certain clubs, namely the Roxbury.
The two boys still live at home and work (loosely speaking) in the family Plastic Plant store. The universe they inhabit is far removed from reality, both in the their minds and in this film, Dan Hedaya is their hard working Dad who doesn’t understand their dreams (and steals most of the best lines in the movie), and Loni Anderson is their surgery enhanced and vacuous Mum. They live in a big house and basically seem to have the world at their feet.
So what’s the problem?
In short they are total losers, they have no life goals aside getting into clubs, only they can’t get into the good clubs anyway. They rely on the same boring stories (“EMILLLIO!!”) and moves to try to score with the fairer sex, never with any success by the way, and constantly have pointless discussions between themselves about how things will be when they run their own club.
They are like the annoying drunk guy at the wedding that has no idea that everyone loathes them and that they aren’t even a little bit funny, charming or interesting. Only they don’t drink and are like that every. Moment. Of. Their. Lives.
Hilarious huh?
It actually sorta is. A chance meeting with Richard Grieco (playing himself) leads to a glorious entry into the Roxbury, where the boys meet the club owner Mr Zadir who is seemingly as stupid as the boys and loves their club ideas.
He agrees to tee up a meeting to discuss their ideas further, and the rest of the film sees the lads trying to get past the various obstacles and impediments that stand between them and the meeting.
Now is a good time to mention that the Butabi brothers are played by Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, both of Saturday Night Live fame at this stage. Watching the film again now I had no clue that Ferrell would turn out to be the big star, sure he gets a couple of good lines and runs his shtick a little, which is OK as by this stage it wasn’t yet old and predictable like it is now, but it is the weasely Kattan who is most amusing.
The lads don increasingly ridiculous outfits and find themselves in increasingly ludicrous situations including:
– Encounters with Gold-Diggers who mistake them for high rollers. (And take their respective “innocences”.
– Exclusive parties.
– Steve’s (practically arranged) marriage.
– The inevitable falling out.
The comedy is at times cringeworthy (everything Molly Shannon as the “love interest” does or says) but overall has a good hit/miss ratio overall with a few clear highlights and everything is wrapped up in a nice Hollywood bow.
Films are expected to do a lot of things, educate, exhilarate and sometimes raise our kids. I fully admit this is pretty low-rent stuff and was never going to threaten your Hotel Rwanda’s or Remains of the Day’s during the award’s season. But sometimes it is worth lowering your expectations and watching something that might elicit a chuckle without killing too many brain cells.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. Short, sharp and usually funny. Sometimes dumb is better.
