A Night At The Roxbury

It seems that a stint on Saturday Night Live is a sure fire way to get your big screen career underway. With a track record of such great comedic actors turned movie stars such as Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey and Mike Myers are anything to go by then the latest big screen duo of Will Ferrel and Chris Kattan seem to be on the right path; even if their stint has lasted some 5+ years.

Doug and Steve Butabi; In search of Zorro?

Doug (Chris Kattan) and Steve (Will Ferrel) Butabi are brothers right? No! Yesssss!!!! There goal in life is to make it into the biggest and hippest night clubs with the Roxbury being on top of their list. The only thing going against them is their dress sense, looks, attitude "Emilioooooooo" and their father (Dan Hedaya) who's wanting his son Steve to run his fake plant store. This obstacle is one that Doug has to battle to get Steve out of, coupled with the next door Lamp store where Emily (Molly Shannon), a woman with a bad ikea fetish, is trying to hitch Steve so that a merger can happen between their fathers businesses.

Let's get back to the urgent matters here, the Roxbury. When Doug and Steve lose access to the mobile phones and their car, they take out their Dads plant delivery van only to have a bingle with a yellow ferrari owned by Richard Grieco (Richard Grieco). To avoid litigation, Grieco offers his services and the boys ask to go to the Roxbury. From there, these A-class losers leave their B-class lives behind. A meeting with club owner Mr "Did you grab my ass?" Zadir (Chazz Palminteri) sees the boys 'in' with the club scene and are soon talking about their new 'Outdoor' night club.

Just when things look up for this duo, the pressure at home, the fact that Steve is slowing down Dougs plans and that there meeting with meeting with Mr Zadir being inadvertantly cancelled sees the boys dreams shattered.

Can these head-boppers get the groove back and make amends for their bad luck? It doesn't matter, it's the ride that counts and it's hilarious if you're in the right mood. If you're familiar with their SNL sketch then you know what to expect but viewing the trailer before-hand sets you up for what to expect and when you start tapping to the music yourself you know you're hooked.

You want a piece of this? How about this?

The video here is good, nothing more, nothing less.

It excels is in the night scenes where the contrast ratio is more pronounced. The bright clothing of our heroes comes up well on the very dark backgrounds, almost too dark at times. Because of this, shadow detail is very good and black level is decent. The sharpness of the image is directly proportional to the quality of the celluloid used and thus seems a little soft at times in comparison to other perfect transfers out there.

The boys have a wide variety of clothing 'tastes'. With normal analog video bleeding would be an issue but DVD has the ability to render images as they are meant to be seen so we are not privy to such distractions.

As simple as the movie is, the audio doesn't do much to enhance the onscreen antics of the duo. What it lacks in punch and head spinning directionality, it makes up for with a kick-ass soundtrack that brings back many memories from the clubs of the late 80's and early 90's. The soundtrack alone induces a cackle or two.

Dialogue is as it should be throughout the movie although there is a scene in the flower shop where father Butabis lines are incomprehensible. This is intentional people.

A theatrical trailer extra is the most basic of basics. This movie doesn't crave anything special edition so it suffices on that count.

This is not going to stand the test of time. The time is now, enjoy it now. It's humor is in it's simplicity; It doesn't reach for a laugh, it just places it on the table for you to take what you will, the more you want to absorb, the more you'll laugh. Sometimes you just want something simple to laugh at and this is it.

A definite renter.