Magic Mike
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Genre: Drama
- Details: US/110mins 16
A conventional story told in Steven Soderbergh's usual unconventional way; Magic Mike manages to offer insights into the world of male strippers while also being damn entertaining. The familiar feeling plot may border on cliché at points, and Pettyfer comes off as a little dense, but is still an extremely fun, engaging yarn.
Channing Tatum is the titular dong swinger, Mike. With aspirations of owning his own business, he instead makes his living stripping at a club owned by the sleazy Dallas (another great McConaughey performance). If he's not having threesomes with random women, he's partying with his offensively toned pals or working in his other job as a labourer. While at the latter, he meets Pettyfer's naive college dropout, Adam, and the two become firm pals. After Mike gets him a job at the club, Adam quickly takes to the business - a little too much - much to the dismay of his sister (the ironically named Cody Horn).
Very much Tatum's baby from inception, and based loosely on his experiences, Magic Mike is a very difficult film not to like. While the hook here for many will be the good-looking male cast, Soderbergh manages to elevate the material with some excellent helming. There's something quite loose about the film, and the Oscar winning director injects a natural, organic feel to proceedings. Considering he only had a budget of $7 million that's both a remarkable and impressive feat.
It's a large, mostly recognisable cast; with some guys whose handsome faces you'll know and probably won't be able to place (Rodriguez, Boomer) and others who have headlined their own productions (Pettyfer, McConaughey, Tatum). The 21 Jump Street star really is on a winning streak of epic proportions; while The Vow may have been as much fun as a burst condom during a one night stand, he's shown a gift for comedy in 'Street' and now managed to portray a likeable male stripper - no easy feat. It's his baby, so Tatum deserves the majority of the plaudits for pulling this film together in the surprisingly classy manner he has.
Underlines the arrival of Tatum as an A-list movie star; Magic Mike will not just appeal to the ladies. Engrossing, fun and strangely fascinating.
Review by Mike Sheridan | 16:50 | Saturday 14th July 2012 | Movie Review
Comments
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Linz
I am dying to see this!!!! A bunch of strappingly handsome men stripping?!?! Im in.... who cares how good the movie is... lol
Posted 15:04 | Mon 9th Jul 2012 -
Ben Whyte
All the guys want to see a movie about a Teddy Bear and all the girls want to see one about strippers. Mad times.
Posted 16:43 | Mon 9th Jul 2012 -
ifollowillingly
i am ACTUALLY shocked that mike grumpy pants sheridan gavethis 4 stars... i was gonna see it anyway! but now i wanna see it more!!!
Posted 18:17 | Thu 12th Jul 2012 -
Sam
my daughter's on holiday for seven weeks in the sun ... i think i might go and see this film on my own - bring some sun in my life!! lol
Posted 10:31 | Wed 18th Jul 2012 -
Sara
Great movie eye candy galore and a really good story loved channing he was ace really enjoyed this movie It's not just for the girls!
Posted 23:05 | Wed 18th Jul 2012 -
CherrySueDointhedo
Sweet jebus, Mike, this film was horrible. Truly a waste of time and expectation. Neither enough nekkidness nor enough of a story to justify the ticket price. McConaughey is now the male version of a ButterFace and that sickens me more than anything else, from a Southern heart throb to an oiled up older creep in one movie. Tatum has got the moves but he's one dimensional when it comes to dialogue and don't get me started on the poe faced Cody Horn. It's funny that any female I've spoken to was completely disappointed yet every male 'kinda' liked it.
Posted 23:10 | Thu 19th Jul 2012 -
Audrey
Should be Matthew Bomer, not Boomer. I actually recognised him and Adam Rodriguez from White Collar and CSI: Miami respectively. I've never seen Alex Pettyfer in anything before and had only seen Tatum in 21 Jump Street which was pretty good. This is being advertised as the stripper movie but it's actually more than that. I quite enjoyed it and think that most of the cast were good. As it's mainly about Mike he had more story than the others but it was wise to have the film about a guy who's a stripper rather than a whole film about the strip club.
Posted 16:59 | Mon 23rd Jul 2012 -
mikecoughlan
They say you should never judge a book by its cover, and I am sorry to say this is why I have being avoiding this film,which was a big mistake on my part. Even thought it is film set in a male strip club, this is only the back drop for the film, and any action that happens there is to be appreciated more for the great dancing and sound track than anything else. It is the nicest film I have seen in a long time and you will feel good after watching it. It has a nice story and good characters and is very well put together. I really liked it.
Posted 08:18 | Sun 29th Jul 2012 -
Lukas
sorry but do you know what age restriction it is ? :)
Posted 01:59 | Sat 11th Aug 2012
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