54 (1998)
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Reviews Counted: 63
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 55
Poor plot development and slow pacing keep 54 from capturing the energy of it's legendary namesake.
Average Rating: 3.4/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 14
Poor plot development and slow pacing keep 54 from capturing the energy of it's legendary namesake.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 30,858
My Rating
Movie Info
Mark Christopher wrote and directed this look back at the Disco Era when the popular Studio 54 was at its apogee in the late '70s. With obvious comparisons to Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (1998), the story introduces working-class 19-year-old Irish-American Shane O'Shea (Ryan Phillippe), who has lived with his father and siblings since the death of his mother when he was 12. Shane quickly rises from busboy to bartender at Studio 54,
Aug 28, 1998 Wide
Apr 3, 2001
Miramax Films
Watch It Now
Cast
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Ryan Phillippe
Shane O'Shea -
Salma Hayek
Anita -
Neve Campbell
Julie Black -
Mike Myers
Steve Rubell -
Sela Ward
Billie Auster -
Breckin Meyer
Greg Randazzo -
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Ellen Albertini Dow
Disco Dottie -
Heather Matarazzo
Grace O'Shea -
Skipp Sudduth
Harlan O'Shea -
Aemillia Robinson
Kelly O'Shea -
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All Critics (66) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (55) | DVD (6)
A more critical and resonant Hollywood movie about the glorious disco culture screams to be made.
Top CriticMyers exploits every vicious, self-hating line that comes his way.
The triteness comes thick and fast.
It's a flat, clumsy piece of filmmaking.
Decadence has rarely looked so pathetic, lethargic and dispiriting as it does in this listless film.
The party never gets started.
...comes off like a high-budget cautionary tale, concerned that if it shows anything attractive about Studio 54, some young and innocent viewer might be corrupted...
A shapeless homage to the glory that was Studio 54 in its decadent heyday...
Neither a great night out nor a great night in.
Let me pause for a minute to think of a more boring subject for a movie ... Sorry. I give up.
Myers shining moment. Too bad nobody saw it.
Just as disappointing as Whit Stillman's Last Days of Disco, Marc Christopher's 54 suffers from a formulaic script that feels like a reworking of Saturday Night Fever and Boogie Nights, both superior and more entertaining pictures.
The writer seems helpless in finding a way to wrap up the story beyond the arrest of Rubell.
A mish-mash of bad writing, poor acting (except Myers), amateur directing and mediocre production credits.
... a wasted opportunity
The 1970s were great times, but most viewers could hardly come to that conclusion based on this film.
One can only hope "54" will hammer the final nail in disco's coffin. It's music that I don't want stayin' alive.
54 is mediocre on almost all counts: acting (with a couple of exceptions), writing, direction and cinematography are uniformly bland, inoffensive and completely unmemorable.
a nostalgic whitewash. With its sterling beat-heavy soundtrack and non-stop glitz, the movie captures the look and sound of its inspiration much more convincingly than it conjures up the Studio 54 atmosphere.
Qualifies as one of the more entertaining bad movies of the year.
I was hoping to be able to recommend 54 from a camp point of view, possibly the next Showgirls. But it's not. The fact is it's so uninvolving, it's not even interesting enough to be bad.
Audience Reviews for 54
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Foreign Titles
- Studio 54 (DE)
