MAGIC MIKE (2012)

Written by Reid Carolin


Directed by Steven Soderbergh


Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA.  June 29, 2012  5:45PM



Channing Tatum is the current prince of Hollywood, thanks to his previous few roles in some moderately successful movies, appealing to women with the romantic tearjerkers, "The Vow", "Dear John" and attracting men with the action-thriller, "G.I. Joe" and the comedy spoof, "21 Jump Street" which all have helped to raise his profile.

His latest, "Magic Mike" is poised to possibly take him to the next level as the film, directed by the respected Steven Soderbergh, takes us in to the salacious world of male strippers. Tatum dazzles as the title character and lights up the screen, even when his clothes are on.

Women have been seductively removing their clothing on a stage for quite some time. But the question remains if there is the same level of interest in viewing nearly naked, hard muscled men bumping and grinding down to their G-strings. "Magic Mike", loosely based on the early days of Tatum when he was a kid needing a job, seems designed to capture the attention of the ladies (as well as a certain segment of the male population) and it does this very well yet it doesn't have too much to offer outside of the titillation.

Mike (Tatum) spends his days breaking a sweat working hard on a Tampa construction site. But by the time the sun has set, he takes to the stage, sweating throughout the evening as a hip-hop styled stripper calling himself, "Magic Mike". He has enjoyed all of the perks that comes with being an exotic dancer yet after six years, he's ready to move on. Mike dreams of becoming a furniture designer but because of bad credit, he is unable to secure a loan to start his business despite offering the bank a down payment of his career-savings of dollar bills. On his day job, Mike meets Adam (Alex Pettyfer), a young, aimless slacker who sleeps on the couch of his sister, Brooke (Cody Horn). After Adam quits this job, through a series of circumstances, Mike introduces him to Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), the eccentric owner of the club, Xquisite and Adam becomes, "The Kid", the newest dancer.

The life of a male stripper appeals to Adam as the job offers him new-found attention from beautiful women, a sense of place and family with the other performers and a lot of cash. However, Adam soon gets swept up by the darker, sleazier side of this world where are there are plenty of wild parties and unscrupulous characters lurking around. Adam begins dealing drugs (and heavily using) and gets in over his head which concerns Brooke but Mike promises to watch out for her brother. Dallas is going to open a bigger club in Miami with an offer for Mike to be a partner. Will Mike continue on as a dancer in a different location or will he stay in Tampa to try and start a new life?

It doesn't seem probable that a lot of straight men will to want to rush out to the theater to see "Magic Mike". But there isn't anything here that's particularly engaging or insightful that would encourage them to want to sit through this dancing parade of half-naked men either. "Magic Mike" is light-weight, predictable and drifts much closer to the high-camp of the female stripper flick, "Showgirls" than Soderbergh realizes. But the film still manages to deliver a few moments that entertain. There is an overall sense of fun and good humor that comes through that makes all of this silliness watchable. Sexual politics is touched upon as the film displays a male fantasy of being an object of desire with lustful women completely losing control in their presence and quite happily giving them as much money as possible in gratitude. Seems like nice work, if you can get it however most guys actually couldn't or probably shouldn't.

The focus of the film is supposed to be on the budding romance between Mike and the sweet, down-to-Earth, Brooke who offers him a possible alternative. Yet since there isn't much chemistry between these actors and with Horn not exactly the most expressive of actresses, their scenes together fail to ignite or generate much heat. The friendship between Mike and Adam is actually far more interesting although Pettyfer isn't able to leave much of a memorable impression as an actor either.

"Magic Mike" is the perfect showcase for Tatum, effortlessly oozing plenty of natural charm and sensuality. Like Mark Wahlberg before him, Tatum doesn't really register great intellect on screen yet he does comes across as a sweet, fun-loving lunkhead with some killer dance moves. He plays Mike as a stripper with a big heart, only wanting to help the down on their luck and more than willing to make great personal sacrifices on their behalf. I don't know how believable this character would actually be but he still does a fine job. McConaughey has finally decided to break out of romantic-comedy rut and return to displaying some of the early promise he had at the beginning of his film career as a character actor. Playing up his laid back, party boy image, McConaughey adds the right amount of a quirky, dark edge as an aging former stripper with an ego-driven quest for power in this small scale business of flesh peddling. 

The actors who fill out as the rest of the dancers at the club are familiar faces, mostly from television, which includes Matt Bomer ("White Collar") and Adam Rodriguez ("CSI: Miami") but they are given nothing to offer but their gyrating flesh while performing plenty of cheesy choreography. And if you ever wondered what "True Blood" 's Joe Manganiello (known in the film as "Big Dick" Ritchie) would look like in a fireman's uniform, "Magic Mike" gives you that opportunity although it doesn't stay on for too long.

"Magic Mike" is a perfect tease of a movie where it seduces you with a tantalizing display of glistening, scantily-clad bodies thrusting at you. But once you get past that distraction, there really isn't much else left to see.