rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1998
Directed by Mark Christopher; produced by Ira Deutchman, Richard N. Gladstein, Dolly Hall; written by Mark Christopher
Starring Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, Mike Myers, Sela Ward, Breckin Meyer, Mark Ruffalo, Heather Matarazzo
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'54' has the material to be a pretty good film, but it has to hurry through
so many plot lines we never get the chance to care. There are twists and
turns in this story about New York nightclub Studio 54, but they never get
the reaction they want. We follow Shane (Ryan Phillippe), a guy from New
Jersey who becomes the favorite bartender in the nightclub. This could have
given us a nice story on itself but we are only ten minutes in the film
here. Subplots are build around his friend and fellow bartender Greg
(Breckin Meyer), his wife Anita (Salma Hayek), Julie Black (Neve Campbell),
a soap opera star who is also from New Jersey, and Steve Rubell (Mike
Myers), the owner of Studio 54.
In the ninety minutes we see so many things pass we are never bored, but we
constantly realize we do not really care what happens. When things get messy
between Shane, Greg and Anita it does not even matter what the outcome is
since we do not know any of the people. If we do not know them, how can we
feel sympathy? With every subplot it works like this. The film rushes from
one affair into another, basically without explaining anything and we keep
on wondering: how did that just happen? Again, I was not bored, there was no
time.
Maybe the film was deliberately made like this. If you see the actors you
would think it aims for young audiences, for people who also watch 'Scream',
'Cruel Intentions' and 'Road Trip'. The difference is that with films like
that a story and nice performances is not really important. 'Scream' has to
be scary and funny since it is a satire on its own genre, 'Cruel Intentions'
knows it is not to be taken too seriously, and 'Road Trip' just goes for
simple laughs. '54' seems to tell us it is a serious film. If that is what
it is, it does not succeed. Even Mike Myers can not do the things he's good
at.