A Night at the Roxbury
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| A Night at the Roxbury | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | John Fortenberry |
| Produced by | Amy Heckerling Lorne Michaels |
| Written by | Chris Kattan Will Ferrell |
| Starring | Will Ferrell Chris Kattan Molly Shannon Loni Anderson Dan Hedaya |
| Music by | David Kitay |
| Cinematography | Francis Kenny |
| Editing by | Jay Kamen |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 2, 1998 |
| Running time | 81 min |
| Country |  |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $17,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
A Night at the Roxbury is a 1998 comedy film based on a recurring skit on television's long-running Saturday Night Live. Saturday Night Live regulars Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, and Molly Shannon star.
The film sees Kattan and Ferrell reprise their SNL characters, dense nightclubbing brothers Doug and Steve Butabi. In the original sketches, Doug and Steve were often joined by that night's guest, credited as 'barhop' (including turns by Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Alec Baldwin, Jack Nicholson, and Sylvester Stallone [parodying his familiar Rocky Balboa role]), but the barhop role was dropped during production of the film.
Other roles include Jennifer Coolidge as a policewoman, Chazz Palminteri's uncredited role as gregarious night club impresario Mr. Benny Zadir, and Colin Quinn as his bodyguard. Ex-SNLer Mark McKinney has a cameo as a priest officiating a wedding.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
Wearing matching rayon suits, Speedo trunks, hair gel and cologne, wealthy brothers Steve (Will Ferrell) and Doug Butabi (Chris Kattan) frequent nightclubs where they bob their heads in unison to dance music (specifically Haddaway's hit song "What Is Love") and fail miserably at picking up women. Their dream is to party at the Roxbury, a fabled nightclub where they are continually denied entrance by a hulking bouncer (Michael Clarke Duncan). By day, the brothers goof off (and daydream about opening a club as cool as the Roxbury together) under the guise of working at a fake-plant store owned by Kamehl Butabi, their wealthy father (Dan Hedaya). The store shares a wall with a lighting emporium owned by Fred Sanderson (Dwayne Hickman of Dobie Gillis fame). The elder Butabi hopes Steve and Sanderson's daughter Emily (Molly Shannon) will marry, uniting the families, as well as the businesses.
In an unfortunate headbobbing in-car incident, Doug shatters the window of their father's BMW 3 Series, and the brothers soon find themselves in a hot-headed, heated argument with their father who storms into the gauchely decorated bedroom the brothers share and denies them access to their vehicle and their cell phones. Given enormous cell phones by their mother (Loni Anderson) and allowed use of the fake-plant store delivery van,[1] they quickly get in a fender-bender with Richard Grieco (playing himself) who to avoid a lawsuit, uses his fame to get them into the popular club. There they meet the owner of the Roxbury, Mr. Zadir (Chazz Palminteri), who listens to their ideas on their own nightclub. He likes them and sets up a meeting with them for the next day.
The brothers meet a pair of women at the Roxbury who see the brothers talking to Mr. Zadir and assume that the brothers are rich and soon after sleep with them. They stop at store to buy whip cream for Mr. Zadir's after party at his house. They annoy the driver who is also Mr. Zadir's bodygaurd. As revenge the bodyguard denies them entry to Mr. Zadir's office the next day for their meeting. He claims that Mr. Zadir was drunk out of his mind last night and doesn't know who they are, when in reality he really does want to see them. Afterwards, the girls break up with Butabi brothers, they fight and Doug moves out into the guesthouse. Meanwhile Steve is forced into an engagement with the Sandersons' daughter, Emily. The wedding is held in the backyard of the Butabi residence. The ceremony is interrupted by Doug, standing atop the staircase to the guesthouse, holding over his head a stereo while blasting the song "What is Love", a reference to the movie Say Anything. As Doug begins bobbing his head, Steve cannot help but mimic his brother, a sign that he is beginning to remember what he really wants and who he truly is. Steve declines marriage to Emily, and departs. In an act of desperation, Steve's former personal trainer/friend/best man Craig, opts to marry Emily admitting his longtime crush on her. Emily agrees to marry Craig as long as he promises to invest in infomercials, and protein bars. Meanwhile, Richard Grieco talks to Mr. Butabi and helps him understand that Steve was not ready for the wedding and that the elder Butabi is too hard on Doug. The brothers forgive each other and then proceed to go clubbing in their new colored suits.
The movie ends as the Butabi brothers happen upon a new club opened by Mr. Zadir. The building is unique in that the exterior is constructed to resemble the interior of a nightclub, and the interior resembles a street. This is an idea pitched by Doug to Mr. Zadir earlier in the movie. Inside, they find Mr. Zadir and learn that they are actually part owners of the club, since Mr. Zadir used their idea. Their new-found success comes full circle when they find two women in the club (a phone representative from a credit card company and a police officer) they had previously been interested in. The women agree to dance with them. After arriving on the dance floor, Doug, Steve and the two women begin to bob their heads in unison to "What Is Love", as does the entire nightclub.
[edit] Cast
- Will Ferrell as Steve Butabi
- Chris Kattan as Doug Butabi
- Loni Anderson as Barbara Butabi
- Dan Hedaya as Kamehl Butabi
- Molly Shannon as Emily Sanderson
- Dwayne Hickman as Fred Sanderson
- Maree Cheatham as Mabel Sanderson
- Lochlyn Munro as Craig
- Richard Grieco as Himself
- Jennifer Coolidge as Hottie Cop
- Meredith Scott Lynn as Credit Vixen
- Elisa Donovan as Cambi
- Twink Caplan as Crying Flower Customer
- Eva Mendes as Bridesmaid
- Mark McKinney as Father Williams
- Michael Clark Duncan as the Roxbury Bouncer
- Chazz Palminteri as Benny Zadir (uncredited)
[edit] Trivia
Chris Kattan appears in a Pepsi commercial that was aired during Super Bowl XLII in early 2008. All the people in the commercial were head bobbing to the song What is Love by the artist Haddaway and at the end Chris Kattan - with the air of one who has endured the indignity of being reduced to an iconic pop culture reference for far too long - says "Stop it!" in exasperation.
[edit] Soundtrack
- What is Love? - Haddaway
- Bamboogie (Radio Edit) - Bamboo
- Make That Money (Roxbury Remix) - Robi Rob's Club World
- Disco Inferno - Cyndi Lauper
- Do Ya Think I'm Sexy - N-Trance featuring Rod Stewart
- Pop Muzik - 3rd Party
- Insomnia (Monster Mix) - Faithless
- Be My Lover (Club Mix) - La Bouche
- This Is Your Night - Amber
- Beautiful Life - Ace of Base
- Where Do You Go (Ocean Drive Mix) - No Mercy
- A Little Bit of Ecstasy - Jocelyn Enriquez
- What is Love? (Refreshmento Extro Radio Mix) - Haddaway
- Careless Whisper - Tamia
Careless Whisper by Tamia is a remake of the song by George Michael/Wham!. Tamia has 2 different recordings of the song. The other recording can be found on her self-titled debut album.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
