REVIEW: Magic Mike
BY SARA PLUMMER World Staff Writer
Friday, June 29, 2012
Get your singles out ladies.
The movie “Magic Mike” promises hot bodies, gyrating hips and good-looking faces. And it more than delivers.
“Magic Mike” is more than just a pretty face, though.
With Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, who also directed “Traffic,” “Erin Brockovich,” and “Ocean’s 11,” at the helm of a film about male stripping, I had a feeling there would be more substance to balance out all the bare-chested style.
Not to worry, there’s plenty of male objectification here to satisfy the most desperate of housewives. A veritable buffet of beefcake is on display, and it’s all-you-can eat.
Within 90 seconds of the movie’s start, there was applause and a few “whoos” heard from the audience. This at 10:45 in the morning.
The film centers around Mike (played by Channing Tatum), a 30-year-old playboy living in Tampa, Fla., who works construction by day and at night becomes Magic Mike, every woman’s thong-dancing dream. And just like its stripping predecessor “Flashdance,” Mike is doing it all in pursuit of something better, in his case it’s starting his own custom furniture business.
But Mike is hardly suffering. He loves his lifestyle so much he recruits Adam, a down-on-his-luck 19-year-old played by Alex Pettyfer, to join him on the roller coaster that is his life.
He introduces Adam, aka the Kid, to the cast of characters that make up the male dance revue Xquisite headed up by Dallas, played to perfection by Matthew McConaughey.
It’s fast times, fast girls and fast money, and Adam can’t help but be sucked in.
As Adam falls further down the rabbit hole, Mike becomes more and more disillusioned by it with the help of Adam’s sister, played by Cody Horn.
The movie’s best moments come at the dance club with the male dancers showcasing their personalities, and, um, assets, to the screaming mob of women who are all too willing to part with their cash.
The guys, played by “True Blood’s” Joe Manganiello, “White Collar’s” Matt Bomer, “CSI: Miami’s” Adam Rodriguez, and WWE professional wrestler Kevin Nash, provide the comic relief, and the eye candy.
It’s obvious these guys were having a blast while bumping and grinding to an energetic audience. Or as I like to call them, the luckiest extras ever.
The standout is McConaughey, who seems born to play a sleazy male stripping manager. I mean, the guy drinks from a silver chalice and has marble busts and oil paintings of himself adorning his home.
It’s also hard to tell where McConaughey ends and the character begins, the two seem so fused together. His infamous bongo-playing even makes a cameo.
The plot, yes there is one, is painfully predictable, but the leads are so charming and the style just edgy enough to make up for the story that’s been told several times before.
Even with less of a story to propel “Magic Mike” forward, I have a feeling theaters would still be filled with packs of women enjoying girls’ night out wishing they could slip some dollar bills into a G-string or two.
Find reviews, showtimes and more at tulsaworld.com/movies.
Associated Images:
This film image released by Warner Bros. shows, from left, Adam Rodriguez, Kevin Nash, Channing Tatum, and Matt Bomer in a scene from "Magic Mike."CLAUDETTE BARIUS/AP Photo/Warner Bros.
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