Channing Tatum spent a bit of time whipping of his clothes for excitable house wives way back in the day. Granted this is more loosely based around the stars earlier career than anything else. So, a bio pic this aint. And a flesh festival it aint either.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Magic Mike tells the story of a male stripper who takes a young guy under his wing and shows him the ropes (maybe that should read poles) while making easy money, partying hard and predictably falling in love along the way.
If you’re expecting nothing but six packs and asses, then think again. This is alot darker than what you are led to believe from the trailers, but unfortunately thats also its downfall.
Channing Tatum is great as Magic Mike. His “life experience” obviously helping out in the role. He’s likeable and has a great personality on screen. Actually, its hard not to like him. The rest of the strippers though, are a different story. They are incredibly under developed and do very little, and ex WWE star Kevin Nash is absolutely woeful. He sticks out like a sore thumb. Matthew McConaughey is pretty awesome though and puts in one of his finer performances to date. Alex Pettyfer and Olivia Munn also put in a decent performance here, Munn in particular is great, but again a bit underdeveloped.
When the movie goes in the more “serious” direction shall we say, it falls short. Not by much, but noticeably so all the same. Characters feel under developed in these scenes and the ending itself seems rather rushed. Magic Mike the movie isn’t entirely sure what it is. A loud, raucous comedy or something a bit more serious.
You could feel the disappointment with the audience, who were obviously led to believe that this could well be this years Bridesmaids, without large women shitting into sinks.
Overall, Magic Mike isn’t entirely magic. It feels too long and dragged out, but if you can put its shortcomings to one side and not expect a flesh festival, then you do get a solid piece of entertainment. Just don’t expect the full monty.
