16 - Friday, Septernber 4, 1998 - North Shore News

No fever in this

M52

Starring Mike Myers
and Ryan Phillipe

Now playing at Park and
Tilford Cinemas

IN the late 770s, there was no
hotter place to be than New
York’s Studio 54.

Steve Rubell’s
landmark club
became a mecca
for models, rock
stars and royalty,
and to be chosen
to get past the
velvet rope made
you one of them.
Unfortunately, 54
captures little of
the glitz that
defined the last
: . days of disco..
Fora start, the extras are more inter-
esting to watch than the main players.
Mike Myers, as-the late Steve Rubell, is a
’ caricature of the real thing with a little -
Austin Powers thrown in.for good mea-
‘He's’ 100 soft to bea ruthless, IRS-
dédging nightclub owner, and. teo
lancholy to be the life of the party.
it gocs downhill from there. Ryan
ipe stars as Shane, ‘the boy from
efsey who makes it wher: he takes off
fi bell, ‘then ‘works his way
up-to the coveted power position of bar-

RYAN Phillipe is the bartender who rubs elbows with

the famous at Studio 54

tender.

The story is told from Shane’s per-
spective, which could have been interest-
ing... but isn’t. Let's race it: we want to
see what life wes like behind those velvet
ropes We don’t want to see Shane have
predictable fights with his family or dis-
agreements with his friend over a girl.

And we definitely don’t need to sec
him pursue the girt of his dreams.
(Especially when it’s played in amazingly
dull fashion by Neve Campbell.)

isco flick

An 80-vear-old
disco diva, grand-
mother by day,
represents the
extreme of the
whole drug-

addled disco era -

— was it liberat--
ed, or was it
pathetic?
She crops up as
often, and as
annoyingly, as
that repetitive
Gordon Lightfoot
remake that seems
to introduce
every scene.
A sudden death
makes Shane sud-
denly guestion his
party lifestyle,
providing an ail-
toc-tidy moral
resolution to the
film.
Tc was fun to spot
the stars (Warhol, Calvin Kiein) who used
to frequent “Studio,” as it was known.
Sela Ward gave a good performance as
Shane's means to an end. And there’s a
good scene where Rubell rolls on a bed
of banknotes before vomiting on them —
ah, the glamorous club scene!

But otherwise, that hollow, empty
feeling ar the end of the film is as much -
a result of a lacklustre plotline and unin-
spired performances as the moraily bank
rupt decade it depicted. ~ os

We're Closed for Labour Day
September 6th & 7th
Re-opening Sept. Sth at 9:30

Worth Vancovver City Library
121 West lath St, North Van.