Magic Mike

A film about strippers: plenty of muscly men, 

but stripped of any real plot

Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn & Olivia Munn

Dir: Stephen Soderbergh

Writers: Reid Carolin

What's it all about?

Mike (Channing Tatum) is a diverse young man: working on a building site, running an automotive parts company and, his true love, making his own creative line of 'unique' home furnishings with things that wash up on the beach outside his house after the frequent hurricanes in Tampa Bay, Florida. And if you hadn't guessed already, he has another job 'after hours', where he becomes Magic Mike - a stripper. On his building job, he meets Adam (Alex Pettyfer), a struggling 19-year-old, desperate for work after moving to Florida and camping out on his sister's (Cody Horn) sofa. Despite some initial unwillingness, strapped-for-cash Adam is taken in by Mike and ring-leader of the Xquisite Dance Revue boys, Dallas (Matthew MacConaghy) who see something in Adam, or 'The Kid' as he known from then on. From that moment Adam is plunged into a world of dancing, girls, money and, umm, thongs.  

Worth a watch?

Well, it certainly is one for the ladies! I went to see it with one of my girlfriends and the cinema was near capacity and was all women, aside from a few reluctant looking boyfriends who had been dragged out on a Wednesday night and clearly would rather have been watching Spiderman. I'm sure that those men felt physically inadequate after watching these mammoth muscle-men flexing their pecs for nearly two hours. There is no rationing of the naked torsos, or bums for that matter! All of the men ooze sex appeal whilst strutting around on the stage, and extra props must be given to Tatum, who does what can only be described as a sexed-up rendition of a dance piece from his Step Up days - he really is a very talented dancer. There was some creative camera work and a certain 'realness' to the testosterone-fuelled banter, which was quite amusing, and the behind-the-scenes sights of the stripping world, well not that I know what that's like, but it certainly seemed more believable than Showgirls, better acted too, but that's not exactly hard. 

Give it a miss?

The film is really just a feast of flesh. Which to some, may not be a bad thing, but I was hoping for a bit more of a substantial storyline. It was all fairly predictable, from what was going to happen with The Kid, to the on-going sexual tension between Mike and The Kid's sister, Brooke. There was also a rather dubious, boring side story of a relationship between Mike and slutty Psychology major, Joanna (Olivia Munn). Whilst Tatum's dancing was actually entertaining to watch, others were sometimes laughable or even cringe-making.  And above all, something that I found even more disappointing than the thin story was how old McConaughey looked trying to keep up with all the youngsters, that said, he still has body better than most. 

So overall...

It may be a guilty pleasure to some women, but in the same way that erotic fiction novel Fifty Shades of Grey is being enjoyed by many at the moment: it's titillating trash. It was a fair enough way to spend an evening, and I certainly wouldn't say no to looking at that much toned male flesh, but it was cringey in parts, and McConaughey's facial wrinkles made me feel sorry for him. 

• Lives up to expectation  1/2
• Scenery/Effects 1/3
• Eye Candy 2/2
• Quality of Acting 2/3
• Plot 1/5
• Quality of film within it's genre: Comedy 2/5 Drama 1/5

40%