A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
Soderbergh lets his hair down with a frank, funny dramedy that bulges with humour, heart and smarts as McConaughey gives it everything he’s got, in a potentially gong-grabbing turn.
[Soderbergh] made a classy film on a tacky subject, without dressing it up in any way that betrays the setting, or apologises for what it’s about. It’s not a major Soderbergh project, on paper, but it transcends every possible expectation, and his wrangling of the cast is so impressive that just about everyone comes out smelling of roses. Well, roses and baby oil.
Magic Mike is aimed squarely at the chick-flick brigade and goes to places few chick flicks have been before.
Soderbergh remains one of the most unpredictable talents in modern movies, one minute making crowd-pleasers like Ocean’s Eleven, Erin Brockovich or Out Of Sight, the next delivering snoozers like Haywire or The Good German. Who would have guessed a movie about male strippers would be among the best of his career?
The final act has an inevitable wavering patch when the film is obliged to tut-tut about the shallowness of the stripping, drinking, bantering, carousing and whooping it has previously enjoyed, but this is terrific entertainment with a sideline in wry melancholia and testosterone-fuelled philosophy. Have 20 dollars.
Tatum and Cody Horn have a lovely, easy rapport, and Brit Pettyfer acquits himself handsomely. It’s the rousing and ridiculous dance routines, however, that will make Magic Mike a girls’-night-out favourite.
The film gets by on the bump and grind charm of its players (Matthew McConaughey, as the club’s charismatic MC and stripping Peter Pan, is a revelation) but by the end you’ll be left as frustrated as the Xquisite’s horny clientele. This is dry hump cinema – fun but flaccid.
Magic Mike is another fascinating curio in a career littered with them – that’s something for which it’s worth parting with cash.
What makes Soderbergh's film chaotic also makes it interesting. McConaughey, Pettyfer and Tatum, a young actor who gets better with every movie (as long as he steers away from mush such as Dear John), are terrifically watchable, even if they are sometimes exposing more to the camera than their emotions.
Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey shine in title roles but let down by other weak performances.
It's a well-handled, engaging, lightweight picture. Rumours of Soderbergh's departure from film-making seem to be premature. But I'm sure he can make films with more muscle than this.
Featherweight.
The Half Monty.
Boogie (nights) wonderland.
The first half delivers just as much fun as you'd expect from a comedy drama about a troupe of male strippers, and twice as much fun as you'd expect from any film directed by Steven Soderbergh. The second half is where the magic fades.
The film isn't especially original and takes few real risks.
Channing Tatum lifted our stories, say strippers
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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