This isn't a masterwork, it shouldn't be in the top 250 or anything, but my goodness it was better than some of the reviews and the rating here would lead you to believe. Very watchable, and worth watching for Mike Myers in his finest dramatic role to date (can't wait to see him in the Who biopic.)
shareI know I was just watching it too. No it's not the world's greatest movie, but it isn't the worst either it was pretty good, but hey what do I know I am Jersey girl - LOL
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I saw this film back in 98 when it hit the cinemas and am still watching it every now and then. I think it's a great film and gets across what it's supposed to do. What sort of plot are people looking for here?? It's about people working in a nightclub and it's eventual demise - that's it. It is supposed to be mundane in a factual way because of it's basis on the real club and Rubell. The same way that something like Schindler's List is shocking in it's factual way too.
The people who diss this film on here obviously don't understand the point of this film and so won't enjoy it. Their hard luck.
I didn't like it, but it's not the worst film that I've seen. I didn't gouge my eyeballs out or anything like that, but I almost fell asleep a few times. It is REALLY boring. I think the biggest problem was that I didn't have any sympathy or connect in any way to the main characters and their stories were deadly dull. The script seemed like it had been 'sanitized', which is kind of a bad idea when you're dealing with Studio 54 and the excesses of the Disco era. I don't know if Ryan Phillipe, Selma Hayek and friends are just really bad actors or badly miscast, but their friendships and emotions on-screen seemed really forced and not the least bit believable. The only good performance in this movie is Mike Myers as Steve Rubell. Not only does he look exactly like the club owner, his character was interesting, and his performance in a serious role was excellent (which I wasn't expecting AT ALL). Overall, I was very disappointed in this film. You could see it could have been something better than it was.
The story should have focused on Steve Rubell, possibly going into why he became the person he did, and his relationship with the other co-owner of 54 (who only dealt with the financial side of the club, and from what I heard was the total opposite of Steve). It would have been a much better story if told from that perspective.
"Boogie Nights" has a similar story, with quite a few scenes at discotheques and it's a much better movie.
Anyone who thinks this the worst movie ever made hasn't seen "Can't Stop The Music"--it's basically the same plot line as "54" except that it's a musical and all the actors drank about 40 cups of coffee and got high on meth before they filmed their scenes. I just don't have any words to describe how stupid it was--well except to say that it was BEYOND stupid. It makes "54" look like Oscar material in comparison, I'm not kidding either.