Film Review: A Night at the Roxbury (1998)

Saturday Night Live was fruitful source of material for Hollywood, with its comedy sketches later serving as basis for many feature films. Some of them, like The Blues Brothers, became legendary and some were quickly and justifiably forgotten. Some, like A Night at the Roxbury, 1998 film directed by John Fontenberry, falls somewhere between.

Main stars, Will Ferrrell and David Kattan, repeat their respective roles from SNL sketches and play Steve and Doug Boutabi, two brothers from Los Angeles who work in flower shop owned by their wealthy father Kamehi Boutabi (played by Dan Hedaya). They live for the night when they cruise at the streets and clubs in search of good time and attractive women, with their lifelong dream is to be allowed entry into Roxbury, the most elite of night clubs. Their problem is that they look and act like losers so their dream is likely to stay just a dream. However, everything changes when they get involved in minor traffic accident with actor Richard Grieco (played by himself) who, in order to spare himself from legal trouble, uses his fame to obtain entry to the club for brothers. There they are suddenly treated like royalty, especially by the club’s enthusiastic owner Zahir (played by Chazz Palminteri). Their idyll is short-lived and soon Boutabi brother must face the real life again, including father’s plan for Steve to marry Emily Sanderson (played by Molly Shannon), daughter of his potential business partner.

While it received some decent box office results, A Night at Roxbury was savaged by American critics. Reasons for that might be found in messy production, which involved unknown director being replaced by Fontenberry during the third week or the shooting (and later revelations that its main star David Kattan was allegedly talked into sleeping with producer Amy Heckerling). Like with many films based on SNL sketches, what works in short format doesn’t work well with feature film; many jokes aren’t particularly funny and the plot is weak. What ultimately rescues this film is very good work by Farrell and Kattan, who both co-wrote the script with veteran television screenwriter Steve Koren. Both actors are quite comfortable with their roles and their efforts are complemented by some of the supporting cast, most notably by former teen idol Richard Grieco who apparently had a lot of fun by spoofing his own celebrity image. Molly Shannon, one of the more talented comediennes of her generation, is also effective in her role. Very short running time makes A Night at Roxbury very digestible, at least for less demanding viewers. Audience nostalgic towards 1990s would probably appreciate this film as some sort of tribute to Eurodance music, with “What Is Love”, famous hit by Haddaway, very effectively serving as film’s anthem.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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