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`A NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY' AN OVERLY LONG COMEDY SKIT.


Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

They'll just turn any ``Saturday Night Live'' skit into a movie, won't they?

If ``It's Pat'' was a one-joke premise, ``A Night at the Roxbury'' has got to be a half-a-joke concept. It's a big-screen version of that skit about the two nerds who dress themselves up in slick suits, scare women at nightclubs and are always bopping their heads to the beat of Haddaway's ``What is Love?''

The gag barely sustains three minutes "Three Minutes" is the 46th episode of Lost. It is the twenty-second episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It first aired on May 17, 2006 on ABC.  of ``SNL'' airtime every month or so. Though a slight 83 minutes, the movie is still about 80 too long.

Of course, time must be taken to tell you everything you don't need to know about the Boppers - and if you've seen ``Wayne's World,'' you know this backstory back·sto·ry  
n.
1. The experiences of a character or the circumstances of an event that occur before the action or narrative of a literary, cinematic, or dramatic work:
 anyway in, by comparison, more Proustian depth.

Basically, they're idiots, played like lobotomized Abbott and Costello Abbott and Costello (kŏstĕl`ō), American comedy team of William Alexander "Bud" Abbott, 1895–1974, b. Asbury Park, N.J., and Lou Costello, 1906–59, b. Paterson, N.J., as Louis Francis Cristillo.  by Will Ferrell John William "Will" Ferrell (born July 16, 1967[1]) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated American comedian, impressionist, writer and actor who first established himself as a cast member of Saturday Night Live,  and Chris Kattan Christopher Lee Kattan (born October 19, 1970) is an American comedian and actor, perhaps best known for his work on the sketch show Saturday Night Live. Biography
Early life
Kattan was born in Sherman Oaks, California.
.

They're also brothers; Steve (the big, dense one) and Doug (the little annoying one) Butabi. They work in their grumpy father Kamehl's (Dan Hedaya Dan Hedaya (born July 24, 1940) is an American character actor. He often plays sleazy villains or uptight, wisecracking individuals.

Hedaya was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Sephardic Jewish family from Syria.
) silk flower (Bot.) The silk tree
A similar tree (Calliandra trinervia) of Peru.

See also: Silk Silk
 shop and live in his unaccountably un·ac·count·a·ble  
adj.
1. Impossible to account for; inexplicable: unaccountable absences.

2.
 grand, Beverly Hills home.

They drive Dad's luxury cars to all the hot Sunset Strip clubs, which they're nonetheless too uncool to get into.

The non-plot involves a traffic accident with Richard Grieco (Richard Grieco!) that results in entree to the glamorous Roxbury.

A life goal achieved, the brothers have nowhere else to go but toward a falling out. When a ruthlessly nesting-minded non-hottie (``SNL'' cast mate Molly Shannon) seduces Steve into engagement, it looks like the Butabi boys' partying days are finished.

Laughless for, oh, about the first hour - you know the wit situation is dire when we're expected to be amused by the Butabis struttin' down the street to ``Stayin' Alive'' for three minutes - ``Roxbury'' actually gets pretty humorous as the climactic, inevitably catastrophic wedding approaches.

Shannon is far and away the film's funniest element; her desperate-yet-determined bride-to-be may be an unflattering cliche, but at least she's not a brain-dead cipher cipher: see cryptography.


(1) The core algorithm used to encrypt data. A cipher transforms regular data (plaintext) into a coded set of data (ciphertext) that is not reversible without a key.
 like every other character in the movie.

The director, John Fortenberry, makes his feature debut after helming episodes of such better-than-average TV comedies as ``Just Shoot Me,'' ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' and ``The Ben Stiler Show.'' He also reportedly directed the pilot for a projected TV series built around Toonses, the ``SNL'' cat who drives cars off cliffs.

If they had put a Toonses scene in ``Night at the Roxbury,'' the whole thing would've added up to a one-joke concept.

THE FACTS

The film: ``A Night at the Roxbury'' (PG-13; sex, language, nudity).

The stars: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, Dan Hedaya, Richard Grieco.

Behind the scenes: Directed by John Fortenberry. Written by Steve Koren, Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan. Produced by Lorne Michaels and Amy Heckerling. Released by Paramount Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 23 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: One and One Half Stars.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Will Ferrell, left, and Chris Kattan have expanded their ``Saturday Night Live'' skit as nerdy, club-hopping brothers into a full-length movie.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1998, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:L.A. LIFE
Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Article Type:Movie Review
Date:Oct 2, 1998
Words:507
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