Magic Mike

A film about male strippers was always going to pique my interest let’s not pretend otherwise.  The fact that Magic Mike is based on the early life of Channing Tatum, an actor who has suddenly hit the big league, has made the entire concept rise beyond the normal levels of intrigue.

PLOT:  Mike (Channing Tatum) is a thirty year old stripper who dreams of being a carpenter.   After a chance encounter with Adam (Alex Pettyfer) Mike takes him under one of his finely toned wings and introduces him to Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) and his team of strippers.  As Adam gets sucked further into the stripping world Mike is beginning to have second thoughts about his lifestyle.  END PLOT

Magic Mike is much more plot driven than expected.  The film isn’t complex but it does have a fairly decent story which is bookended cleverly by a performance of “It’s raining men”. 

The tone is fairly light hearted until the midway point when some of the darker elements of the stripping lifestyle start to emerge – drugs and even Dallas showed that he had sinister undertones.

The stripping routines were all ridiculously overblown and comical however I counted more female breasts than male butt cheeks.  I am all for equality but there is a time and place for it.

Channing Tatum has come along way since Step Up (a franchise that I will not hear a bad word about – except Step Up 3D) and although he isn’t the best actor in the world he does try.  It was  unfortunate that whenever the film took a dramatic turn he couldn’t quite step up to the plate.  Tatum was clearly the only member of the troupe which any dance experience so he got a few solo outings.  Say what you want about his acting – Tatum can dance.

Matthew McConaughey is a good actor but he appeared in so many crappy romantic comedies it became hard to take him seriously.  McConaughey was on great form as Dallas and despite his casual laid back attitude he did manage to show that Dallas could be dangerous if he needed to be.

Alex Pettyfer looks permanently grumpy and I fear that he will launch a violent attack on any person who mentions it.  Adam was the most unlikeable character in the film but Pettyfer was decent in the role.

Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello were mostly the background attractions however I did find my eye wandering past Mike’s drama to watch them.  They had about five lines between them but they were extremely well executed.

 Picture the tv show:  It's set in the 1950's, good cop/bad cop and it rains.  A lot.

There was much excitement surrounding Magic Mike but I did have realistic expectations about the film.  Magic Mike was great fun but it just wasn’t dramatic enough when it mattered to have any real impact.  It gets a 7.5/10.