This party is dead . . .

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2014)

It has become almost folklore, the legend of how Studio 54 co-founder Steve Rubell use to stand behind the velvet ropes outside his very exclusive club and choose who could go in and who couldn't. '54' is a movie that seems to have been written by someone who didn't get in. It's a speculative work of fiction that is less interested in the legend of Studio 54 then in a lame story we've seen a dozen times.
The movie should be providing us with a look inside Rubell's modern-day Roman orgy of sex, drugs and disco. What was the freedom to be found there? What were the inside secrets? What really went on in that basement? Director and screenwriter Mark Christopher couldn't care less. He hasn't done his homework on his subject and instead writes a screenplay full of stolen elements from 'Boogie Nights', 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Showgirls' The story focuses on a fictional character, a dimwitted Jersey kid named Shane (Ryan Phillippe) who crosses the river into Manhattan in hopes of getting a glimpse of 54. He gets across the velvet ropes and is soon working as a bartender. Strange thing is, nothing really happens inside the club in this movie. There are a lot of drugs and apparently a lot of sex (we see very, very little of the sexual nightlife of Studio 54).
Phillippe isn't much of an actor. He has covergirl looks but his talent is only skin deep. He really isn't necessary to this story. He gets a job, watches others lose themselves in a haze of drugs, falls in love with a soap opera star (Neve Campbell) and watches Rubell get into hot water with the IRS.
Which brings me to Mike Meyers. He plays Rubell as a flippant gay socialite with a chip on his shoulder that has snorted too much cocaine. What there is of his performance is fine but Meyers is given almost nothing to do. He doesn't look like Rubell and every time we think that the movie is headed for some insight into him, they cut back to Phillippe.
A recent documentary on VH1's "Behind the Music" gave me more insights than any 5 minutes of this movie. If we are the believe the 54 in this film it doesn't live up to it's legendary status. The décor is the same but what goes on there isn't much. The club in this movie looks less like a den of iniquity then an unsupervised high school dance.