A Night at the Roxbury

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A Night at the Roxbury

Directed by	John Fortenberry
Written by	Chris Kattan Will Ferrell
Starring	Will Ferrell Chris Kattan Molly Shannon Loni Anderson
Distributed by	Paramount
Release date(s)	2 October 1998
Running time	81 min
Language	English
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 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 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

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Wearing matching fuchsia and magenta 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 hulking bouncer (Michael 'Big Mike' Duncan).

By day, the brothers goof off (and sometimes daydream about opening a club 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 will marry, uniting the families, as well as the businesses.

In an unfortunate in-car headbobbing incident Doug shatters the window of their father's BMW 3 Series, and soon find themselves in a heated conversation with their father who storms into the gauchely decorated bedroom the brothers share and denies access to the 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], but quickly get in a fender-bender with Richard Grieco (Richard Grieco) who uses his fame to get them into the popular club. The actor is relieved that he won't be discovered by the police at the wheel of an an illegal Ferrari Testarossa.

The brothers meet a pair of women at the Roxbury who soon learn the immature brothers are quite inexperienced in the bedroom. Meanwhile Steve is forced into an engagement and the Butabis soon find themselves torn apart and Doug's relationship with their father worsens.