NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY, A/ *

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A Night at the Roxbury

*

Rated on a 4-star scale
USA
Directed by John Fortenberry
Written by Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan and Steve Koren

CAST.....
Will Ferrell..... Steve Butabi
Chris Kattan..... Doug Butabi
Molly Shannon..... Emily
Dan Hedaya..... Kamehl Butabi
Loni Anderson..... Barbara Butabi
Richard Grieco..... Himself
Chazz Palminteri..... Mr. Zadir
Elisa Donovan..... Cambi
Gigi Rice..... Vivica
Lochlyn Munro..... Craig

The city at night can be a dazzling mass of bright light and loud music. "A Night at the Roxbury" opens by capturing this, with beautiful slow-motion images of neon, and the powerful pop song "What is Love?" on the soundtrack. For about thirty seconds, I thought the movie could be something really special.

Yeah, just thirty seconds. Sometimes you see an image and just know the film will be a dud. Popping up throughout the would-be amazing opener I just described, the idiotic Butabi brothers were this image -- when I realised they were the main characters, the movie's fate was sealed. They have creepy grins, dopey voices, eyes that don't focus and mis-shaped heads. Their haircuts are awful and they make cool clothes look ugly. Their only form of communication is shouting, they can't dance and are constantly throwing themselves into women they mistakenly think they have a chance with.

I could hardly tell them apart when watching the movie, but from reading the credits I discover their names are Steve (Will Ferrell) and Doug (Chris Kattan). They drive around town every night getting thrown out of clubs, and always end up at the exclusive Roxbury. They never get in, though, until one night when Richard Grieco runs into their car, and agrees to help their predicament as repayment for the accident. Most of the running time deals with the consequences of this visit, in which Steve and Doug somehow impress the rich owner, Mr Zadir (Chazz Palminteri).

In many moments, the Butabi brothers run into strangers who they annoy. From how these folks react, we can tell this movie has no idea about how people really behave -- details of speech, movement and timing make everyone seem like a half-glimpsed caricature lifted out of a TV comedy sketch. How foolish to attempt a film set in nightclubs when you're clueless about reality - these are places where we take away many memories and lessons about human behaviour.

Even basic observations like these may be too deep for this trash. Ignoring how detached from humanity the picture is, one can be disheartened simply by the fact that the great Chazz Palminteri and Dan Hedaya are lowering themselves enough to appear here. Or that the film expects us to laugh when -- for no apparent reason -- the moronic brothers break a window, slap each other, make funny noises in unison or break into fits of nose-scratching. Or that there are meaningless asides thrown in -- the brothers' bedroom, for example, clearly resembles that of Anthony Michael Hall in "Weird Science"... but why?

I could go on, but I'd be delaying making the real point, which is that this is a one-joke movie, and the joke is disastrously unfunny. There are few things more nauseating than people attempting to be cool and being aggressively irritating and geeky. "A Night on the Roxbury" thrives on this obnoxious behaviour. It's awful.

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