33
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovIt's a noble effort, but aficionados and the mildly interested are recommended to seek out VH-1's excellent Studio 54 documentary in lieu of this shallow morality play.
- In the end narration, Shane gripes that the new corporate owners who took over Studio 54 after Rubell and Schrager's crash made the club "safe and boring." But that's exactly what Christopher has done to 54.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThere's a glimmer of what the film might have been, though, in the performance of Mike Myers, who plays Studio co-owner Steve Rubell, with his sweaty thinning hair and look-at-me-I-got-class Lacoste shirts, as a vengeful gargoyle presiding over a kingdom of beauty he can rule but never join.
- 40EmpireEmpireIt looks attractive, and is enlivened somewhat by the soundtrack's obligatory disco dinosaurs, but those expecting any real insight into the 70s club scene will come away hugely disappointed.
- 30Film ThreatFilm ThreatThe movie does a great job of capturing the excessive behavior and the fun that was had but it falls short in delivering a realistic picture of lives after the party ends. Christopher, like Rubell, is into giving his audience escape, not reality.
- 30The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe film's sole redeeming facet is Mike Myers' rich, multilayered performance as Rubell: Simultaneously repulsive and charming, hedonistic and oddly paternal, Myers steals every scene he's in. It's a great performance that deserves to be in a much better film.
- 25The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThere are easily 54 reasons to dis 54, but let's start and finish with the obvious: The script plays like a proud offering from the lead hand at the Cliché Factory.
- 20L.A. WeeklyManohla DargisL.A. WeeklyManohla DargisIf it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where this maladroit drama about the infamous New York discotheque went wrong, it's because everything in the film is lousy: The writing, the directing, the acting, the casting (Neve Campbell?), the moral posturing, the Capote clone, the Andy lookalike, even the glitter that clings to Salma Hayek's lashes like tears.
- 20Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDecadence has rarely looked so pathetic, lethargic and dispiriting as it does in this listless film.
- 20The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenYears from now, if Mark Christopher's timid, meandering film 54 is spoken of at all, it will probably be lumped together with Whit Stillman's ''Last Days of Disco'' as one of two movies released in 1998 to bungle the same opportunity.