Review: 'Magic Mike' delivers more than pretty faces
BY SARA PLUMMER World Staff Writer
Saturday, June 30, 2012
6/30/12 at 4:43 AM
Get your singles out ladies. The movie "Magic Mike" promises hot bodies, gyrating hips and good-looking faces. And it more than delivers. "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 was 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 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 call them, the luckiest extras ever.
The standout is McConaughey, who seems born to play a sleazy male stripping manager. 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 makes a cameo.
Even with less of a story to propel "Magic Mike," I have a feeling theaters would still be filled with women enjoying girls' night out wishing they could slip dollar bills into a G-string or two.
MAGIC MIKE
Stars: Channing Tatum, Matthew
McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Matt
Bomer
Theaters: AMC Southroads 20, Cinemark
Tulsa, Cinemark Broken Arrow,
Starworld 20, RiverWalk, Owasso,
Eton Square, Sand Springs
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Rated: R (pervasive sexual content,
brief graphic nudity, language, some
drug use)
Quality: 
(on a scale of zero to
four stars)
Original Print Headline: Movie manages meld of brawn and brains
Sara Plummer 918-581-8465
sara.plummer@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Channing Tatum stars as a 30-year-old playboy who works construction by day and strips at night in "Magic Mike." Courtesy
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