A Night at the Roxbury

Based on the Saturday Night Live sketch, A Night at the Roxbury follows Will Ferrell’s Steve and Chris Kattan’s Doug as they attempt to overcome a series of obstacles to own their own nightclub. It’s a thin premise that’s employed to mostly watchable yet exceedingly hit-and-miss effect by John Fortenberry, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Ferrell, Kattan, and Steve Koren, delivers a relatively brisk comedy that benefits from its stars’ likeable work and an ongoing emphasis on admittedly amusing gags and set-pieces – with the movie, in addition, certainly receiving plenty of mileage out of the appealing efforts of an eclectic supporting cast that includes Dan Hedaya, Molly Shannon, and Michael Clarke Duncan. There’s little doubt, however, that A Night at the Roxbury isn’t entirely able to justify its feature-length running time, as the movie, though running about 77 minutes without credits, suffers from a handful of palpable lulls and ineffective subplots that cumulatively prevent the viewer from ever wholeheartedly embracing the material. The entertaining, satisfying climactic stretch, which boasts an admittedly hilarious Say Anything… reference, ensures that the whole thing concludes on a relatively compelling note, at least, with the end result a barely-passable SNL comedy that certainly could’ve fared a whole lot worse.

**1/2 out of ****