Studio Fifty Bore

Rating: 3/10 (25 November 1999)

You would think that a movie about Studio 54 would focus on the life of Steve Rubel. But why make sense? This film is Boogie Nights meets disco. The stars are small time employees of Studio 54 who want to be famous but whose careers go nowhere. The film could have been about any famous disco club and it would not have changed the story very much.
Boogie Nights did this story ten times better. In 54 the lives of our young struggling characters are not explored in any depth and the gaps in the story are huge. When a bus boy steals 10 thousand why isn't he fired? Instead Rubel's top financial assistant is fired for stealing the money but Rubel says later he knew she didn't do it. 54 seems to have half a script.
As for the acting, the stars, Ryan Phillipe, Salma Hayek and Breckin Meyer just don't carry the film. Hayek is often terrible with her Elvis sneer. Phillipe and Meyer can go back to TV and won't be missed. My advice to Neve Campbell; stay away from bombs like this. The decent performances by Mike Meyers and Sela Ward give a hint that with a good script, competent actors and the same interesting sets, there could have been a good film here.

As Studio 54 plodded on, the dialogue became more ridiculous. I couldn't help but laugh at the Rubel welcome back party with Hayek in a terrible wig and Mike Meyers waving at our nobody main characters who he couldn't see 100 feet away and whom the real Rubel wouldn't have remembered. But then the best part of Studio 54 happened. This stinker ended.