6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.7 |
Shane O'Shea was a 19-year-old guy living with his dad and two siblings in a small, boring town in New Jersey...until he crossed the river into New York City and entered a nightclub that was nothing less than the center of the universe - Studio 54. Shane's fast rise from busboy to the "glamorous" job of a shirtless waiter--puts Shane directly in competition with his ambitious buddy, Greg, a handsome busboy who's unwilling to "do what it takes" to advance his career. Shane also befriends Greg's Latin wife, Anita, a coat check girl, also aspiring to be a singing disco diva. The trio work under the erratic tutelage of their excessive yet nerdy club impressario--Steve Rubell. All four of their lives collide during this summer of 1979 when the club went from its height to its decline following IRS investigations.
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, Mike Myers, Sela WardHistory | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 1.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Some two decades before people were partying like it was 1999, they were partying—well, like it was the late seventies. The disco era was in full swing, cocaine was the drug of choice, and sex was more recreational than at any time since the Summer of Love. Was Studio 54 the beneficiary of trends that had already become firmly entrenched, or did it foster a nascent cultural zeitgeist, propelling it to unimaginable new heights (and highs)? It was probably a symbiotic relationship, but just as probably no single place came to symbolize the excesses of the late seventies more than this converted opera house and former broadcast center, a lumbering monstrosity on West 54th Street in midtown Manhattan. (The structure is still around and houses New York's Roundabout Theater Company, where a revival of the chestnut Harvey starring The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons is about to open). An enterprising entrepreneur named Steve Rubell understood perhaps intuitively that New York (and the world) was ripe for an over the top, glitz and glam filled space where celebrities could come to see and be seen. What was part of Rubell’s particular genius, though, was his highly publicized door policy, which saw Rubell himself venturing out into the street to select ordinary everyday people to be part of the club scene. It was like winning a celebrity lottery, and it instantly catapulted Studio 54 into the publicity stratosphere. The club had its share of backstage dramas, including several raids by the police, some well publicized arrests and Rubell’s eventual imprisonment on tax evasion charges (along with his partner), but 54 the film goes a somewhat stranger route, seeing the mayhem through the eyes of a New Jersey kid named Shane O’Shea (Ryan Phillippe in one of his first major film roles) who is first selected by Rubell to be part of the evening’s entertainment and who then gets hired to work in the club. This plays out as a sort of Star is Born story, though almost in reverse, as Shane, a decent stargazing kid from across the river sees his dreams first blossom in front of his eyes, and then suddenly decay and rot as his own moral turpitude begins to drag his once idealistic persona down to the depths of despair.
54 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate and Miramax with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Good heavens—what is up with these new Miramax catalog releases? As mentioned in the review of Reindeer Games, most of these Miramax catalog titles which have been released over the past several months by Lionsgate have looked at least acceptable, and sometimes very, very good indeed. But Reindeer Games was just appallingly bad, and the news on 54 isn't much different. This entire transfer has a soft, upconverted look that is often ugly and unappealing (I'm not alleging this is an upconvert, as I don't know, I'm just saying it does not have a decent high definition appearance). 54 is probably an even darker film than Reindeer Games, by which I mean the vast bulk of the film takes place in dimly lit settings (as should be obvious from the screencaps included with this review), and the persistent crush and lack of shadow detail means large swaths of the image here simply can't be well made out. There's also some of the worst posterizing in recent memory in some of the blue shaded party scenes. The one big plus with this transfer is it doesn't have the unbelievable edge enhancement and haloing that hampered Reindeer Games, but that is damning with faint praise.
54's disco fueled soundtrack is presented here via a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, and that is far and away the best, most immersive, element of the audio mix. The rest of the film is surprisingly flat sounding, with little depth and inconsistent surround activity. Part of that is due to the fact that a lot of the film is simply Shane's voiceover, and other sections are smaller scale dialogue scenes offering just two or three characters at a time. Fidelity is excellent here, though, and the low end is especially impressive, something that really makes the pulsating disco music come fully alive.
If You Could Read My Mind Music Video (SD; 3:34). The Gordon Lightfoot classic gets a nice discofied reading by Stars on 45.
There are some good elements buried in the overall mess of 54, notably Mike Myers in a surprisingly good dramatic performance, and the wild and wacky recreations of nightlife at Studio 54. But the rest of this film is just over the top melodrama, so turgid that it would be funny if it were played just a tad more archly than it is. This subject matter cries out for a definitive film that can deal with the entire zeitgeist and not get saddled with all the silly personal drama that 54 does. The old saying that insists that "truth is stranger than fiction" might be amended slightly here to include, "and it would have made a lot better movie". Aside from the film's failings, this is the second Lionsgate- Miramax catalog release in a row to feature pretty awful looking video. The audio is great, but supp.ements are virtually nonexistent. It's hard to see what allure this release will have for anyone other than diehard fans of the film, if indeed there are any.
Warner Archive Collection
1928
2006
2015
Fox Studio Classics
1941
1971
1958
+ Director's Cut on Blu-ray
1977
1956
1940
2010
50th Anniversary
1973
2019
2015
4K Restoration
1955
1932
2019
1956
2011
2004
1957