A Night at the Roxbury

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A Night at the Roxbury
A Night at the Roxbury theatrical poster
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
Music by	David Kitay
Cinematography	Francis Kenny
Editing by	Jay Kamen
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	2 October 1998
Running time	81 min
Country	United States
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 jebeni 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 a third nightclubbing brother (including memorable turns by Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, and Sylvester Stallone), but a third brother role was dropped during production of the film.

Memorable 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 nonplussed bodyguard. Ex-SNLer Mark McKinney has a cameo as a priest officiating a wedding.

1 Synopsis
2 Cast list
3 Soundtrack
4 Cultural impact
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Wearing matching rayon suits, Speedo trunks, hair gel and cologne, wealthy brothers Doug and Steve Butabi 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 in-car headbobbing incident, Doug shatters the window of their BMW 3 Series, and the brothers soon find themselves in a 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.

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. After, 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 interrupted by Doug, who saves Steve from marrying Emily, by blasting "What Is Love?" on his boombox. Steve cannot help bobbing his head to the music and is then saved from marrying Emily. Meanwhile, Richard Grieco talks to Kamehl 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 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.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast list

Loni Anderson - Barbara Butabi
Maree Cheatham - Mabel Sanderson
Jennifer Coolidge - Hottie Cop
Elisa Donovan - Cambi
Michael Clarke Duncan - Roxbury Bouncer
Patrick Ferrell - New Club Waiter
Will Ferrell - Steve Butabi
Dan Hedaya - Kamehl Butabi
Dwayne Hickman - Fred Sanderson
Roy Jenkins - Flower Customer #1
Richard Grieco - Himself
Chris Kattan - Doug Butabi
Mark McKinney - Father Williams
Eva Mendes - Bridesmaid
Lochlyn Munro - Craig
Chazz Palminteri - Mr. Zadir (Roxbury owner)
Viveca Paulin - Porsche Girl
Colin Quinn - Dewey
Gigi Rice - Vivica
Molly Shannon - Emily Sanderson

[edit] Soundtrack

What Is Love (7' Mix) - Haddaway
Bamboogie (Radio Edit) - Bamboo
Make That Money (Roxbury Remix) - Robi Rob's Club World
Disco Inferno - Cyndi Lauper
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy - N-Trance
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 - Josie
What Is Love (Refreshmento Extro Radio Mix) - Haddaway
Careless Whisper - Tamia

[edit] Cultural impact

Although not considered a great success, the film has managed to gather many advocate supporters. In 2006, a dance bar was opened in Rehovot, Israel, named after the "Roxbury" nightclub of the film.^{[citation needed]}