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In Short: Terrible Miramax film gets the usual Disney effort(in other words, not much of an effort at all) for DVD. The film: There are few things more comforting to a film freak like me than the Miramax Films logo. Miramax, the New York based studio, has been putting out quality film after quality film for some years now. It makes it all the more distressing after watching the film unfold. This is an awful film, pure and simple. The second of this Summer's films seemingly edited into oblivion("The Avengers" being the other). It's almost astounding how many ways this film fails, and the saddest thing is that it's a major missed opportunity to cronicle a major era. The story of a drifter kid(Ryan Phillipe) with "big dreams"( yet another film where the main character drifts into possible corruption until the last minute.) One night, Phillipe's character is chosen to be let into "54", the famous New York nightclub. When the camera goes through the doors, we expect a wild recreation of the club, down to every detail....what we find is a badly done interior set, and although I've never seen the club(I was born in the late 70's), I'm sure it must have looked different than this. If it really did look like it did in this film, I simply don't see what the attraction was. What the film should have been was a look into the backrooms of the club, a look at how the corruption and money-laundering went down. What we get is a very weak love story between Phillipe and a soap opera star, played by Neve Campbell. Campbell's scenes have seemingly been clipped out of the majority of the movie, since we only see her once or twice. These two have bumped into each other and seemingly decided to fall in love after saying hello. The rest of the film seems to have been filled with shots of people dancing and stumbling around in the background of the club. And what a strange bunch of shots they are. The film, as a whole, is lit appalingly badly. I can name a few films that were made for less than 50,000 dollars that I felt were lit better, such as Ed Burn's "The Brothers McMullen." And who would have guessed that a movie about a place where sex and drugs ran rampant would be so terrified of confronting those subjects. "54" is a very tame film about a very wild place. The film is supposed to show the biggest party on earth, yet it feels like work to sit through the film, paced out slowly and strangely, made to feel like you've spent way too long in this "bash". "54" is slow, humorless, and basically, very dull to sit through, even at an hour and a half. Acting? What acting? The only actor who does a halfway decent job here is Meyers, in his first major dramatic role. Neve Campbell is fine, but it seems like most of her role in the film has been left on the cutting room floor. The script of "54" is really one of the very worst I've heard in a long time. Plenty of lines in "54" sent a shudder through me they are simply so downright awful; most of it sounds like it comes from a bad straight-to-cable film. And only a couple of weeks after I've thought I'd seen the worst("The Avengers"), this film comes very close. Nothing works here. The interiors, the actors, the script, the non-existent plot(This is seemingly the "Seinfeld" of the 70's- a film about nothing.) Truely a mess. The DVD VIDEO: About the nicest thing I can say here is that this isn't the worst looking DVD I've ever seen from Disney. Images are consistently on the soft side, but again, not the worst I've ever seen from Disney. Colors are especially nice in the club: well-saturated and vibrant. The dark scenes at "54" are actually pretty decent looking: clear and well defined. The cons are definitely visible: some graininess, shimmering and pixelization are visible throughout and occasional instances of something that I can only explain as very odd "flickering" in the image, which is something I've never seen before. There's also some scratches in the print used. Flesh tones are natural. Although this isn't the worst Disney disc, the flaws were definitely noticable enough to be distracting. Nothing new from Disney, who does nothing to improve my opinion of them as the worst studio when it comes to DVD. Again with this Disney disc, the cons certainly are more numerous than the pros. SOUND: Actually not too bad- the music certainly sounds clear and dynamic during the scenes at "54", filling the room with Disco tunes. Other than that, the film is mainly dialogue, which sounds clear and without any problems. Nothing too great, but it does the job. MENUS: The usual Disney menus: basic, non-animated film-themed menus. EXTRAS: A music video and the usual stupid Disney "Recommendations". Final Thoughts: Disney's DVD efforts are getting really tiring. This certainly isn't a great transfer and nothing in the way of extras really doesn't help my opinion. Definitely not recommended.  The Film: 55/F = (275/500 possible points) Video: 68/D = (272/400 possible points) Audio: 82/B = (328/400 possible points) Extras: 62/D = (186/300 possible points) Menus: 67/D = (134/200 possible points) Value: 65/D = (195/300 possible points) TOTAL POINTS:1390/2100 Average:66%/D BACK TO THE SITE: Listing Of DVD Special Sales Back To A Guide To Current Film A List Of Current/Upcoming DVD For Sale Soundtracks For Current Films |