Let’s start the ball rolling; next year will mark 25 long years of societal decline since 1998’s comedy classic A Night at the Roxbury, and the occasion should be marked in a meaningful way, but how? Statues? Tribute songs? Maybe the best way to celebrate our memories of Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan as LA clubbers Doug and Steve is just to re-watch their Saturday Night Live sketches and pore over this John Fortenberry-directed feature which was critically reviled back in the day, but is no better or worse than many other comedies of the times. Sample dialogue?
Steve Butabi: Oh my God, Doug. This is the most amazing place I’ve ever been.
Richard Grieco: Guys, guys. This is the coat room. The club’s in here.
There’s also a remarkable array of supporting talent on show; this could be the cast of a David O Russell or PT Anderson movie, with Chazz Palminteri, Dan Hedeya, Jennifer Coolidge, Molly Shannon and of course, VHS legend Grieco playing himself. The 90’s action star crashes his sports car into the back of Doug and Steve’s dad’s floral lamp-shop van, and he agrees to get the boys into The Roxbury, a fabled night-club which the boys have long aspired to entering.
A Night at the Roxbury has got the same catchphrase heavy feel of Wayne’s World or even Bill and Ted, but it’s remarkably free of crude gags and the plot plays out in the way you’d hope, with Steve and Doug discovering that the person the really need has, sniff, sniff, been right there all along. Let’s face it, there’s few activities in life more pretentious and deserving of parody than clubbing, and A Night at the Roxbury is your plus one to a suitably wasted weekend on and off the dancefloor.
Playing better now than at the time, the music choices are also pretty good, from Haddaway’s iconic EDM hit What is Love? to Ace of Base’s trenchant anthem Beautiful Life to Scottish traditional lament Do Ya Think I’m Sexy reworked here by dancefloor masters N-Trance and Rod Stewart, and the whole A Night at the Roxbury package feels like it’s been in a retro time-capsule yet still comes up box fresh. Sure, it’s a silly, lightweight film that plays like the extended SNL sketch that it is, but who cares? Sometimes a little light relief is in order…
The last two sentences of your review sum this one up for me as well.
In the comments section, the mob rules. No Will Ferret! If he would just stop that screaming/squeal talking he insists on doing, then maybe!
If you are not a fan of this side of Will Ferrit’s act, you probably won’t dig this one…will prep some more Chevy Chase since there’s such resistance to Ferrett..
Now we’re talking!
Is the correct answer.
Ya lost me at “Ferrell”. That’s all I need to know. Plus, Bill would totally wipe the floor with this guy. As would Neo. As would John Wick. Huh, look at that, a triple threat. The Ferrell better start running…
It’s Will Ferret! Sigh.
What’s the difference?
They both stink.
They both crap
And neither can act if their life depended on it!
* ba dum tish! *
Yellow card for dissent.
The crowd boos
The crowd hisses
The crowd goes full on Manchester South Vega Arrow and rampages through the streets!
Chase and Ferrit are heroes on this blog. Take your negative vitriol elsewhere. Much praise for both in the comments.
Yes, I “see” that “much praise”. SoOoOoOoOo much…..
From America to Japan, people lining up to praise Chase in particular. I understand how hard this is for you to accept, but you’ll have to try harder…
Chase is a fat head.
thus saith Boba Fett, thus ends the argument.
Red card!
ahem
I cannot tell a lie.
Ferrell and Chase,
I’d rather die
or eat some mace
than watch these two buffoons
act worse than any cartoons.
This poem brought to you by the Poets Of Offal Poetry Society….
You are still off the field of play. Begone!
Confession: I skipped this one.
Lightweight. Not sure it saw the inside of UK cinemas.
That explains it.
I’m sure you watch Will Ferret just to be annoying. Nope. Of course.
Open your heart to Will Ferret! What are the clubs like where you are? Worth me and Alex coming down for a wild weekend?
They’re banging in Newcastle. China White, Cosmic Ballroom, Tup-Tup Palace… take your pick!
Yes, we’ve got China White up here, so where can we have a nice dinner first?
Depends what you want, Latin American, Caribbean, Italian, Thai and then there’s all of Chinatown. Burger King and MacD’s if that’s what you like. 🤷🏼♀️
Great. Couple of chicken burgers should give us plenty of dance fuel! Boxing Day bash then?
Ok will meet you there!
Just mention WP4 on the door for pre-club drinks, I’ll be on the 59p margaritas with Alex in the private room at the back! Bring on the techno slabs!
I wasn’t going to turn up but who can resist 59p margaritas? Not me!
Knew that might swing it! Aftershock jellies from 10! I’ll keep a case of Hooch in the back of my car after the after party! Bacardi breezers too!
My cup runneth over. Literally.
Damn, this feels so much older than 25 years ago.
The music keeps us young! Fancy hitting the clubs?
To be honest, I didn’t do much clubbing back in the day. Were you a regular on the Glasgow circuit?
Big time. Smashing it regularly.
What was your Roxbury? The Dive in the Clyde? Archaos? Volcano? The Shack?
The Volcano was pretty good in the day. That’s the one you see in Trainspotting. Long gone now. Archaos was a hot number too. The Shack is a bit tacky, that’s still there; it’s where Scarlett Johannson goes to hunt for edible local men in Under the Skin.
Coming over for a festive clubbing holiday? You know you want to!
Should be able to make it. I’m transporting this Dali painting but I guess I can leave it in the coatroom.
Yes, just keep it in the back of your car for now, I need to dust around where it was hanging; I had my world cup wall chart up while it was away, and need to bring it down and try and chip some of that horrible floral wallpaper away…