secretly wonderful

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2004)

I'm going out on a limb here. I've just bombed "Joe Dirt," and now I'm going to do an about-face on modern comedies and argue that "A Night at the Roxbury" is brilliant. Most critics didn't see a distinction between these two bombs, but I do.
Comedy oftentimes depends on suffering. Comic protagonists always take a beating, and we either laugh with them, or at them, or maybe we laugh not at all because we couldn't care less. The essential question is, are the protagonists of "A Night at the Roxbury" lovable losers or just totally annoying dweebs who deserve all the grief they get?
You know my answer already. I love the Butabi brothers. They have a strong fraternal bond, they're obsessed with Emilio Estevez, and they can't get any play. What's not to love?
Dan Hedaya is great as the brothers' disgruntled dad, and Chazz Palminteri does a hilarious cameo as an entrepreneur obsessed with ass-grabbing. Richard Grieco demonstrates a remarkable sense of humor about himself by allowing the Butabis to build him up as a big celebrity, when the joke is obviously that he's a total has-been. What a sport, eh?
Nice song, too. I like this stupid movie. Really, I do.