A Night at the Roxbury (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	78:35
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (36:01)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Fortenberry
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Will Ferrell Chris Kattan Dan Hedaya Molly Shannon Richard Grieco
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	David Kitay

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish French Italian Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Doug (Chris Kattan) and Steve (Will Ferrell) Butabi are brothers living what they call "B club lives" while they think they are "A" club people. As frequent clubbers, their lifelong goals are to get into the Roxbury (the hippest club in town) and to own their own club. Until now they have had no chance at either of those things, until a certain celebrity (Richard Grieco, playing himself) accidentally crashes into them (it was the Butabi's fault). Keen to avoid litigation, Grieco gets the Butabi brothers into the Roxbury, and this is where the adventure begins. With their first goal completed, the brothers manage to meet the Roxbury's owner and even go so far as successfully pitching their club idea to him. Their lives seem on track for once, until problems arise in the form of women. After a bad experience (well, not all bad) the brothers go their separate ways, although as we have become accustomed to in formulaic Hollywood films, the closing moments and conclusion are somewhat predictable (but still funny). A quick viewing of Jerry Maguire may be in order to get one of the final jokes, though.

    A Night At The Roxbury is based on a series of skits (which I have never seen) on the US show, Saturday Night Live, which feature both the principal actors of this film. If you like stupid humour, or films that never take themselves seriously, then this is definitely for you. Having a fondness for five year old dance music could also be a prerequisite.

Video

    It is presented in a 16x9 enhanced aspect ratio of 1.78:1, unlike the Region 1 release. Lucky I didn't import it.

    The detail displayed by the transfer, although decent, isn't exemplary. Shadow detail varies as the film progresses. Initially, the transfer is very dark (in the car especially), to the point where everything blends into the semi-darkness, although the transfer lightens up (literally) soon thereafter. Fortunately, from this point onwards shadow detail is much better. Since there are quite a few night and in-club scenes, this is a good thing.

    The film has a very bright and varied colour palette, which is represented well. Pick any club scene for an example. The only problem with the colour is that skin tones are slightly oversaturated and a little on the red side, especially during the bridge scene towards the end of the movie.

    The major glitch I mentioned earlier occurs at 31:48, during the choreographed club dance scene. It consists of a short video dropout that is around the length of a layer change. Although it isn't as noticeable on DVD-ROM, it is still very agitating overall, and occurred on more than one copy of this DVD.

    Aliasing is present in a few scenes, namely 2:26, 8:37 and 15:35, but they are minor artefacts. The print is not the cleanest I have ever seen, with a few spots apparent at 9:16 as well as a semi-constant spattering of marks throughout the film. Also, some telecine wobble is present during the opening Paramount logo.

    This disc is RSDL formatted with the change occurring at 36:01 during a scene change. The layer switch is a very long one. It seems to have been placed a split-second too late, with the start of the next scene not flowing smoothly when compared to the VHS version of the film.

Audio

    There are four audio tracks present, being Dolby Digital 5.1 efforts in English, French, Italian and Spanish. I listened to the English track and sampled the French track just for fun.

    The dialogue is discernable at all times. Audio synchronization is reasonably spot on, except for a sequence at 1:14 where the dialogue doesn't even come close to matching the mouth movements of the female clubber.

    The music, based around 90s club anthems (What Is Love, This Is Your Night) mixed with some 70s classics (Stayin' Alive) was compiled by David Kitay, who has done a magnificent job. The music is what makes this film. What Is Love is the unofficial theme of this film, being reprised several times throughout, as well as being integral to the storyline.

    The surround channels are not used for anything other than music, which is a good thing. Since the film is a comedy, normally not much is expected from 5.1 mixes but this one is an exception. The surrounds are used constantly to great effect to create a club-like experience, which no other disc I have heard in this genre has even come close to. Although not a demo disc for surround effects, it is one for surround immersion with the front L/R channels.

    The LFE channel kicked in during all of the club scenes, and in basically every scene that features music. The bass was powerful, but not overbearing.

Theatrical Trailer (2:18, 1.78:1, 16x9, DD 5.1)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall