Magic Mike - Movie Review
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: Reid Carolin
Stars: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Olivia Munn, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello
Didja ever wonder what Joe Manganiello was doing on his days off from “True Blood”? He was co-starring in a movie about male strippers, loosely based on Channing Tatum’s experiences when he was nineteen. Magic Mike opened, unsurprisingly, to largely female crowds. I saw it in a theater that was a little over half full, with about ninety percent of the audience women. They were really engaged, starting with the previews and continuing through the film–laughing out loud, clapping, and cheering when appropriate.
I so wanted to like this movie–good looking guys taking their clothes off–what’s not to like?
The movie just tried to be too many different things, and it ended up failing at all of them as a result. The marketing campaign sold this as a movie about male strippers, yet the actors spend a surprisingly small amount of time either stripping or in g-strings. Always leave the audience wanting more is generally a good idea, but just list a FAIL on this. There’s more naked backsides on HBO watching an average episode of “True Blood”–and most of the cast have been putting their time in at the gym . . . .
There’s a second movie wrapped around the stripper plotline, an artsy, gritty, dramatic watch as a promising young man falls into the depths of depravity film. Every outdoor shot (even of the Florida sunshine) is drab and colorless, showing hopelessness, etc. Maybe this movie would have worked better if Alex Pettyfer’s character had been given some more depth (and was less of a jerk). It’s hard to give a damn about someone who runs roughshod over everyone who cares about him, even if he is just a kid and doesn’t know any better.
There are some definite high points: Joe Manganiello’s statue routine (he’s painted gold and posing, far too briefly), Matthew McConaughey’s strip routine (he definitely hit the gym, and it shows), and Channing Tatum’s hip-top dancing–with his clothes on (if you’ve seen him in Step Up, you know he can actually dance).
The plot was really thin, the romantic subplot just didn’t work, and you didn’t really come to care for the characters so much as pity them. The ending was really unsatisfying and not very believable.
Honestly–stay home. If you want to see guys take off their clothes, turn on HBO and catch an episode of “True Blood” or “Game of Thrones”–pretty to look at and plots to think about. What more could a girl ask for?
Elektra Hammond
Buzzy Mag Editor & Reviewer
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