Magic Mike XXL

 

Magic Mike popped up a couple of years ago and the world watched on in shock and alarm as Channing Tatum suddenly became a big Box Office draw.  As I had been a fan of Tatums since Step Up I sat back with smug satisfaction and enjoyed the ride.  I remember seeing Magic Mike in the cinema and according to my review of the film I enjoyed it immensely.  The sequel was unnecessary but inevitable and I was quite content to ignore the build-up as I had already decided to see it.

PLOT:  Mike (Channing Tatum) has left the world of stripping and is the proud CEO of a failing furniture business.  Mike decides to abandon his struggling enterprise and join the guys for one last ride (their phrasing, not mine). The gang do a quick detour to collect the black characters and another to offer advice to menopausal women before heading to a major stripping convention where they have the opportunity to earn dozens of dollars by gyrating rhythmically along to R&B music.  END PLOT

The plot of Magic Mike XXL should have been a few scenes of dialogue intercut with many stripping and dance montages.  Unfortunately this is not what we got.  The scenes with the boys bantering were great fun with Joe Manganiello stealing the show but the film fell flat on several occasions due to unnecessary diversions.  The entire section with Andie MacDowell was a waste of time and only served to highlight just how desperate the filmmakers were to shoehorn a love interest for Mike into the movie.  Amber Heard is not an interesting actress and the character of Zoe added nothing to the film.

There is no denying that Channing Tatum can dance and his final routine was great fun to watch.  The rest of the cast are not natural dancers but their routines took this into account and were all entertaining in their own individual ways.  It’s disappointing that we had to wait until the final 10minutes of a 1hour 55minute film to get what we paid for. 

Channing Tatum is fine as Mike and returning cast members Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello get more screen time but there were sections of the film where they were pushed to the side in favour of the boring subplots.  Magic Mike XXL should have been 90mins of pure enjoyable nonsense and although I politely applaud the attempt to flesh out the subplots, they weren’t necessary and only served to hinder the film.   

Magic Mike XXL is a mixed bag and although there were some moments that were great fun the pacing was off and I felt bored too many times.  It gets 6/10.  Magic Mike XXL is ticked off the list of films to see this summer but it will be forgotten very quickly.  However, I am now off to watch Community and enjoy the wonderful Donald Glover in brand new ways.

Troy.  Making ends meat to pay for a plane ticket back to Greendale.  After escaping the pirates.

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.