THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY: it's enough to turn you atheist

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY gives disco music a bad name.
Released in 1978, when the world was knee deep in great disco tunes, this film manages to avoid acknowledging almost all of them.

From the anemic, barely audible theme song over the opening titles, accompanied by a montage of 'typical' LA teenagers getting ready for Friday night, it's obvious that this is going to be little more than a feeble West Coast copy of the previous year's Brooklyn based blockbuster (and classic disco song drenched) 'Saturday Night Fever.'
Where SNF had an incredible soundtrack, strong storyline and a charismatic leading character who lives to dance, TGIF features a parade of bland, generic teenagers dancing to bland generic and anonymous disco tracks on a distinctly unmemorable Friday night at The Zoo, a disco in downtown Los Angeles.
There's two young guys out on the pull, two young girls hoping to be pulled, two even younger girls (including a pre-Doris from 'Fame' Valerie Landsburg) hoping their fake ID is good enough to get them in the joint so they can participate in the dance contest, an Hispanic guy dressed in leather who lives to dance, a straight-laced middle class couple taking a walk on the wild side (well, he is an accountant), Jeff Goldblum as the oily, lecherous and cadaverous disco owner, and Donna Summer as an aspiring disco diva who gets her big break singing the film's only decent song 'Last Dance.'
Throw in The Commodores making a guest appearance at the club, and acres of polyester, wing collar shirts and bell-bottom pants and the result is distinctly yawn-inducing.
Despite the proliferation of young people and (supposedly) multiple-beats-per-minute music the film
lacks any sense of energy or vibrancy. It's late 70s youth culture with the sound turned down to avoid annoying anyone.
What's really shocking is that two powerhouse music labels are responsible for this lethargic mess. THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY is a co-production of Casablanca Filmworks and Motown Productions. Casablanca was home to Donna Summer, Parliament, Village People, Georgio Moroder and KISS amongst others in the later 70s, while Motown had been a hit machine since the early 1960s yet both labels seemed reluctant (Summer and The Commodores aside) to use the film to showcase their artists. It's just another example of director Robert Klane's determination to ride the coattails of 'Saturday Night Fever' without understanding anything about what made that film such a smash hit.
Equally surprising is the willingness of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to acknowledge the existence of THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY despite it's solid gold awfulness, and award 'Last Dance' the Oscar for Best Song.
Rarely has a less deserving film been so honoured.