So, as I see it, most people like to watch other people take off their clothes in the right circumstances. It’s mostly down to personal taste from there. That is a big reason why I never checked out Magic Mike before: I don’t really have much interest in male strippers. No shame to those who do. I just didn’t care to see a movie about male strippers, even if it was directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Granted, I don’t have much interest in movies about female strippers either, but that has more to do with the fact that movies about women taking their clothes off like that feels a lot more like exploitation. Regardless, I have now seen Magic Mike.
“Magic” Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) is a talented carpenter who wants to open a business selling furniture of his own design, but in the meantime, he does some odd construction jobs and works as a male stripper for sleazy club owner Dallas (Matthew McConaughey). On a work site, he meets a directionless young man named Adam (Alex Pettyfer). Adam takes Mike up on an offer to go to the club and ends up handing out props for the night for the performers before he’s given an impromptu audition. Adam, soon nicknamed “the Kid,” is good-looking enough for the job, but he doesn’t know how to dance. Dancing, however, can be taught, and he’s soon working the club with Mike as his mentor.
However, the movie sets up an interesting balancing act. Mike is really looking to get out of this business even as Adam is looking to get into it. Sure, there’s a lot of money involved in this job, but some of it involves side hustles selling drugs at parties and the like. Mike’s efforts to get his business off the ground aren’t going anywhere, but he also has another reason to maybe quit: he’s somewhat taken by Adam’s sister Brooke (Cody Horn), and she’s not that thrilled at the prospect of dating a stripped from the looks of things. So, can Mike find a way out or will he stay to make sure Adam is OK on his way in?
Oh, and though Soderbergh’s movie, based in part on Tatum’s own experiences as a male stripper, is more about the people and not so much the stripping…there’s still plenty of stripping for people who are into that sort of thing.
Now, the thing about many Soderbergh movies is that they are technically accomplished works in the way that they are filmed, but they can be somewhat cold in their delivery. That can work fine when Soderbergh is just trying to show, say, a bunch of cool characters robbing a casino, but it can be a problem in other movies. I didn’t think it hurt Magic Mike much, and that comes down largely to a great performance by Tatum. This movie, combined with the same year’s 21 Jump Street, helped establish he was more than just some pretty boy but a talented actor with a good range. That helps out in a movie like this, and his honest performance is a real highlight to a movie where a lot of men take their pants off.
Grade: B+
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