A Night at the Roxbury
Another Saturday Night Live skit-to-screen comedy: this one isn't as
abysmal as The Coneheads or It's Pat, but it's not on par with
Wayne's World or The Blues Brothers. Reprising their head-bopping
Butabi brothers, SNL-ers Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell spend the
entirety of the film trying to get into the Roxbury, LA's chicest night club.
Of course the fashion-challenged siblings -- replete with chains and polyester
-- think they're the hottest movers and shakers since John Travolta in
Saturday Night Fever, but they're really a pair of delusional dimwits
who live at home, can't get laid, and are shunned at every club door. Along the
way a woman comes between them (SNL's Molly Shannon in an uproarious
bit), they hang out with Richard Grieco, and they get berated by their
controlling father (Dan Hedaya looking ripe for a coronary). Although the film
occasionally achieves the warm goofiness of The Wedding Singer, its real
star is the retro-hip disco soundtrack ("What Is Love"), which sustains the
sherds of momentum with a throbbing, rhythmic energy. If only SNL alum
Mike Myers had tossed his 54 shtick into this flick, there might have
been at least one entertaining cinematic take on club life.
-- Tom Meek
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