A Night at the Roxbury

A Night at the Roxbury

Night at the Roxbury is a very, very long 82 minute movie. To call this a thin SNL-sketch plot stretched out to feature length is an insult to movies like Superstar, Coneheads, Blues Brothers 2000, and The Ladies Man. The credits play over something indistinguishable from one of their sketches. They hit each catchphrase and joke in turn, then the credits stop. Uh oh, now the movie has to start.

 Some of it works. Kattan and Ferrell have a really good, lived-in chemistry as a classic dim-witted duo. It would be hard not to with all the years together on SNL, and in these characters in particular. There’s a couple fun supporting characters, and the cast is filled with ringers such as Chaz Palmenteri, Dan Hedaya, Molly Shannon, Lochlyn Munro, and Loni Anderson. There is even a running gag that is funny more than it’s not.

 But, oh boy, the rest is bad. Did this movie start the trend of goofy comedies focusing really hard on a B to C list celebrity playing a fictionalized version of themselves? Richard Grieco sleepwalks through the thankless and unfunny role here. The movie really hates women. Molly Shannon turns from a sweet love interest to the villain halfway through for no reason at all other than nothing else was happening. Also, I can’t say I’m surprised, but that “What is Love” song plays no less than 10 different times. It is also featured heavily in the climax (that otherwise is the same scene from Say Anything). Speaking of ripping off - another scene in the denouement has two characters repeating the dialogue from the end of Jerry Maguire completely verbatim, with no twists or jokes at all.

 Finally, the most baffling thing about the movie is how much Chris Kattan throws himself into the role and how… good he looks. Don’t get me wrong, almost none of this is funny, but he looks like 10x the rising star that Will Ferrell actually was.