Burn, Baby, Burn, Disco Infernal

Rating: 5/10 (28 July 1999)

As you can see from my summary, I think this movie is pure hell.
Perhaps author/director Mark Christopher might have made a decent movie had he been allowed to stick to his original ideas. However, considering how contrived and threadbare the whole script as we see in the movie, I doubt this could have been anything close to a great movie.
The director seems to have assembled the worst cast possible, or at least made sure that most of them gave their worst performance possible. Ryan Phillipe proved in this movie that he is nothing more than something nice to look at. If your idea of a great actor is one who looks great in tight jeans or short shorts and a tight tank top (not that using acting ability would ever matter), he's perfect in the role.
His character is not a loveable one, but Phillipe doesn't even make us regard him in any matter. He does not develop his character's thoughts or emotions. He could have been a villian or some cocky bas**rd whom the audience loves to hate. Yes, Phillipe was limited by a poor script, but I can't say he has ever excelled as an actor in any movie.
Neve Campbell was also extremely dissappointing in her performance, in her battle with Phillipe for who could be the worst actor in the film. Her performance is also uninvolved and bland. She was better in the "Scream" movies and even "Wild Things." She failed to show us why Phillipe's character would even possibly be infatuated with her.
For the most part, the rest of the cast was also terrible. Salma Hayek proved why I don't like her acting once again, and the stoner from "Clueless" was also rather bland.
The "dirty old lady" bit is becoming too much of a bad Hollywood cliche these days. I liked Ellen Dow's character the first time I saw it--in "The Wedding Singer."
One great thing about "54" was Mike Myers' brilliant performance. He really threw himself into the role, and proved that he, as a true actor, might be more gifted than we have previously given him credit. He used the terrible script to his advantage, using the contrived, false dialogue to show the pathetic nature of his character. I only hope that Peter Weir will cast him in a movie and do for him what he did for Robin Williams (Dead Poets Society) or Jim Carrey (The Truman Show).
Perhaps if Mr. Christopher had the type of controll that Orson Welles had over "Citizen Kane," he might have had a decent movie. But to even mention the two in the same sentence seems sacrilege.