A Night At The Roxbury

''A Night at the Roxbury'' is a 1998 American comedy film based on a recurring sketch on television's long-running ''Saturday Night Live'' called " The Roxbury Guys". ''Saturday Night Live'' regulars Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Mark McKinney, and Colin Quinn star. This film expands on the original ''Saturday Night Live'' sketches where the Roxbury Guys were joined by that week's host, and bobbed their heads to Haddaway's hit song "What Is Love" while being comically rejected by women at various clubs.

Other roles include Jennifer Coolidge as a police officer, Chazz Palminteri's uncredited role as gregarious night club impresario Mr. Benny Zadir, and Colin Quinn as his bodyguard Dooey. Former ''SNL'' cast member Mark McKinney has a cameo as a priest officiating a wedding.

Plot

Steve and Doug Butabi are sons of a wealthy businessman and in their spare time enjoy frequenting nightclubs, where they bob their heads in unison to Eurodance, a European subgenre of electronic dance music, and fail miserably at picking up women. Their goal is to party at the Roxbury, a fabled Los Angeles nightclub where they are continually denied entry by a hulking bouncer.

By day, the two men work at an artificial plant store owned by their wealthy father, Kamehl. They spend most of their time goofing off, daydreaming about opening a club as cool as the Roxbury together, with Doug using credit card transactions as an excuse to flirt with a card approval associate via telephone that he calls "Credit Vixen." The store shares a wall with a lighting emporium owned by Fred Sanderson. Mr. Butabi and Mr. Sanderson hope that Steve and Emily, Sanderson's daughter, will marry, uniting the families and the businesses to form the first plant-lamp emporium.

After a day at the beach, the brothers decide that night was to be the night they would finally get into the Roxbury. Returning home, Doug gets into a heated argument with their father about going out clubbing instead of staying home for a dinner party with Emily and her parents. The angered Mr. Butabi then refuses them access to their BMW and their cell phones. When the brothers leave anyway, they are given enormous, embarrassingly outdated cell phones by their more sympathetic mother, Barbara, and allowed use of the plant store's Ford Econoline delivery van. The brothers go to the Roxbury, but when they are asked their names, they're once again told they are not on the list and are denied entry.

After discovering that they might bribe their way into the club—and after realizing the $8.25 with which they initially attempted to bribe the bouncer was insufficient—the brothers drive around looking for an ATM slamming on the brakes again and again while in traffic causing them to get into a fender-bender with Richard Grieco. Grieco explains to the girl with him in the passenger seat that his Ferrari is a racing car and therefore illegal. To avoid a lawsuit, Grieco uses his fame to get them into the popular club. There, they meet the owner of the Roxbury, Benny Zadir, who listens to their idea for their own nightclub. He likes them and sets up a meeting with them for the next day. The brothers also meet a pair of women at the Roxbury: Vivica and Cambi, who see them talking to Zadir and think that the brothers are rich. The women later sleep with Doug and Steve, leading the brothers to think they are in serious relationships.

On the way to the after-party at Mr. Zadir's house, the brothers annoy his driver and bodyguard Dooey by making him stop to buy fluffy whip and making jokes about sleeping with his parents. As revenge, the next day, Dooey refuses them entry into Zadir's office for their meeting. He tells the brothers that Zadir was drunk out of his mind last night and does not know who they are. In reality, Zadir wanted to see them, but does not have their contact information.

Vivica and Cambi break up with the Butabi brothers after realizing they are not actually wealthy. Afterwards, the brothers argue over who is at fault for their sudden misfortune and Doug moves out of their shared bedroom and into the guest house. Meanwhile, Steve is forced into an engagement with Emily by his father. The wedding is held in the backyard of the Butabi residence, but is interrupted by Doug. The brothers reconcile and leave, but their friend and personal trainer Craig, reveals his feelings for Emily, and marries her instead. Afterwards, Grieco consoles Mr. Butabi and helps him understand that Steve was not ready for marriage, and that Mr. Butabi is too hard on Doug.

After the Butabi brothers reconcile with their father and Doug moves back into their bedroom, the film ends as the brothers happen upon a hot new club. The building is unique in that the exterior is constructed to resemble the interior of a nightclub, and the interior resembles a street; this was an idea pitched by Doug and Steve to Zadir earlier in the film. Attempting to enter, they're asked their names and much to their surprise are told they are on the list. They walk into the club where they find Zadir and Zadir reveals that to reward their idea, he has made them part-owners of the club. Their new-found success comes full circle when they meet two women in the club: Doug's phone operator from the credit card company ("Credit Vixen") and a police officer with whom Steve flirted while getting a ticket, both of whom enthusiastically accept the brothers' offer to dance.

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
* Kristen Dalton as Grieco's lady
* Jennifer Coolidge as Hottie Police Officer
* Meredith Scott Lynn as Credit Vixen
* Gigi Rice as Vivica
* Elisa Donovan as Cambi
* Michael Clarke Duncan as Roxbury bouncer
* Colin Quinn as Dooey
* Twink Caplan as Crying flower customer
* Eva Mendes as Bridesmaid
* Mark McKinney as Father Williams
* Chazz Palminteri as Mr. Benny Zadir
* Joe Ranft as the hottie dancer
* Agata Gotova as Waitress

Soundtrack

Certifications

Production

Based on the sketch known as ''The Roxbury Guys'', Amy Heckerling was a fan and asked co-creator Steve Koren to write a film script based on it. His original draft was described as being similar to ''Saturday Night Fever'', but Heckerling was unimpressed as she considered the characters to be from Los Angeles and the sons of an immigrant who was disappointed in their lifestyle. Several jokes ended up on the cutting room floor including a gag where the Butabi brothers meet a coke dealer in the bathroom who offers them the substance by calling it different names. After finally breaking down and telling them what it is he is selling, the brothers were to respond by saying that they do not do drugs.

In May 2019, Kattan claimed in his memoir that he was pressured by producer Lorne Michaels to have sex with Amy Heckerling so she would direct the film (although she ultimately only produced, rather than directed it). This incident ultimately ended his friendship with Ferrell.

The Roxbury was indeed a real Los Angeles-area nightclub, located in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. It was a popular celebrity haunt in the mid-1990s; however, it closed in 1997, before the release of the movie. The exterior shots used to represent The Roxbury in the movie are actually those of a club formerly known as Billboard Live; ironically, Billboard Live is also the setting of the movie's first scene. The Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles served as the Roxbury's interior in the film.

The original real-life Roxbury location later became a taco restaurant, and most recently hosted a high-end gym as of 2024, while the Billboard Live location used for the Roxbury exterior shots in the movie is now a different nightclub, known as Keys. The two locations are only 1.3 miles apart on West Sunset Boulevard.

Film producer Elie Samaha opened a new Roxbury in Hollywood in 2011, but this club has also closed.

Reception

''A Night at the Roxbury'' was heavily panned by critics. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, it received a rating of 11% and an average rating of 3.4/10 based on 54 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "''A Night at the Roxbury'' has the same problems as the worst ''SNL'' movies: one-note characters and plots unreasonably stretched to feature-length runtime".

Anita Gates of ''The New York Times'' acknowledged the film's appeal, but reasoned that it was "a lot like the brothers themselves: undeniably pathetic but strangely lovable. Still, do you really want to spend an hour and a half with them in a dark room?" Roger Ebert observed that "the sad thing about ''A Night at the Roxbury'' is that the characters are in a one-joke movie, and they're the joke... It's the first comedy I've attended where you feel that to laugh would be cruel to the characters."

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Night At The Roxbury, A
Saturday Night Live films
Saturday Night Live in the 1990s
1998 films
1990s buddy comedy films
1990s English-language films
Albums produced by Tim & Bob
Films directed by John Fortenberry
Films scored by David Kitay
American buddy comedy films
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Paramount Pictures films
Films produced by Lorne Michaels
Films with screenplays by Will Ferrell
1998 comedy films
1990s American films
English-language buddy comedy films