CHANNING TATUM ALEX PETTYFER MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY CODY HORN
MAGIC MIKE
When I spoke with Mr. 2012, Channing Tatum at this year’s SXSW he said “I hope it [Magic Mike] lives up to the hype”. For those who want nothing more than to see a couple of McConaughey and Tatum cheek shots, this film will fulfill that. However, running at two hours, the majority of viewers will want and expect more and, therefore, will be disappointed. There are some very funny moments, all revolving around McConaughey (who is really the man of the year, even though he isn’t getting the recognition Tatum is), who works the viewers just like he is working the crowd. Magic Mike is a gimmick movie; the draw is male strippers, but the clever idea stops there and even Oscar winning Steven Soderbergh doesn’t elevate this story beyond another on stage romp with no valuable story in between.
30 year old entrepreneur/stripper Mike (Tatum) has helped his boss and owner of the Tampa Escapades male strip club turn something completely ridiculous into a cash cow. Dallas (McConaughey) has assembled a variety of men who take it off while women throw money at them or “make it rain” as he calls it. Mike, who also works a construction day job, throws his new buddy Adam “the kid” on stage to see what he can do and, in turn, creates a monster. Adam’s older sister Brooke (Horn) asks Mike to look after her brother, who is eager for a shortcut to money and pleasure. It doesn’t take long for the sleazy lifestyle and everything that goes along with being a male stripper to corrupt Adam and create tension between Mike and Brooke’s relationship.
Soderbergh (Oceans Eleven, Contagion) tries to elevate an otherwise cheap (in every sense of the word) storyline into something more than it can be. The first half of the film is all about the crazy world these strippers live in; its funny, different and pretty entertaining. However, with the second half of the film, Soderbergh and Tatum, who produced it since the entire concept was based on his early stripper days, try to turn the tables and show why everything in the first half of the movie is now corruptive, negative and how to learn a lesson from it. Clearly, the money behind this film is the sexual world of these male characters and not this redemptive story, which is just weak and disappointing. Coyote Ugly (the film about scantily clad bartenders) did the exact same thing we see here, this is just the R-rated male version.
Tatum actually originally wanted Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive) to direct this film (insert laugh here), but when Tatum mentioned the idea to Soderbergh on the set of Haywire, the deal was made. The casting of McConaughey was inspired and well timed, and Tatum is also the right choice for this role (even though it’s the same persona he continues to play). However, despite the title “Magic Mike", there isn’t that much magic to the character or the story. The writing of the second half felt like a screenwriter with writer's block because, much like Charlie Kaufman’s dilemma in the film Adaptation (how do you write an entire screenplay about a flower?), this film has nowhere to go. Whether this film is received well or not will not stop the fans of Tatum and McConaughey from paying to see them in the flesh.
Final Thought – Plenty of Mike, very little magic.
Grade C+ By: Dustin Chase W. rated R 110min
