Review: Magic Mike
By Christine Petralia
Image courtesy of MTV.com
July 29, 2012
Pardon me for sounding like a sexist right now, but I would have much rathered 90 minutes of these actors stripping for me, than the 109 minutes of forced, poor writing and acting. And I went to see Magic Mike in New York City, so I overpaid for it. In fact, shelling out any money for this film is not worth it, because once the actors stop dancing and stripping and start speaking, you will just want to stop watching.
I'm going to attempt to explain this plot, but I honestly don't even know where they were going with it. 'Magic Mike' (Channing Tatum) is a self-proclaimed entrepreneur, saving his money from stripping and roof-tiling to eventually design custom furniture. Adam (Alex Pettyfer) is a 19-year-old who doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, as he finds work on Craigs List to get by as he lives on his sister Brooke's (Cody Horn). Mike takes Adam under his wing and into the life of male stripping. As Mike tries to create a relationship with Brooke and even his frequent f*ckbuddy Joanna (Olivia Munn), he is also trying to get his life in order, hoping to get more stake in the strip club's Miami move. In addition, he wants to start that custom furniture business, but no bank will give him a loan because his credit is bad. Adam gets cocky and money hungry and starts getting involved with drugs and drug-dealing, despite warning from Mike. At a gig at a sorority house, which goes south, Adam leaves behind his stash that he still has to sell. Turns out he owes $10,000 to the dealers and instead of trashing Adam's home, the dealers go after Adam at Mike's house and trash it. Mike feels responsible for Adam, so he shells out the $10,000 and essentially wipes out his savings for his future business. At this point, Mike also learns that he's getting less out of the new Miami club than expected and he feels pretty crappy about himself. So he randomly leaves the club before he's set to go on and heads to Brooke's house to 'talk.'
And that's it. I'm not kidding. That's the gist of the poorly written plot. I kind of see where they were going with this movie, but I honestly feel like it was the male-version of Showgirl. I know that this was loosely based on Tatum's life as a stripper before he became an actor. But there was just nothing to this movie. And even the scenes in the strip club, as enjoyable as they were, seemed a bit forced.The only really good dancer was Tatum. And damn, can he move. Yum. I was disappointed that the other male strippers were barely in it. Despite the few scenes of the 'individual dances,' and the couple of lines uttered at the beginning when they first meet Adam, there's not much interaction with them.
Matthew McConaughey did a pretty good job of a creepy strip club owner. Granted he has a great body, his dance did remind me of a real MC at a strip club and I felt a bit weirded out when he was in his thong bending over. I would have preferred seeing Tatum's ass more and even Joe Manganiello's sweet ass and body more, than McConaughey's. But oh well. And the girl who played Brooke, ugh, she had no emotion. In fact, the one emotional scene she had where Adam overdoses, it's like she was faking the tears. Munn was wasted in this film too because she is a pretty good actress. And I just didn't care when Mike finds out that Joanna has a fiance, as they never really explored the pair's relationship, other than she was a frequent booty call with a penchant for women.
As I said in the beginning, I would have rathered more dancing and stripping and less talking, and I probably would have enjoyed this much more.
2 stars for the story; 4 stars for the eye candy.
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