Review No.180: Magic Mike

Plot: Steven Soderbergh's film concentrates on Channing Tatum's Mike Lane who works on building sites by day but at night is a regular turn at the XQuisite nightclub under the name Magic Mike. Mike has built up a relationship with the club's owner Dallas, played by Matthew McConaughey, and gets an extra cut of the profits by helping his boss do the books. Mike is saving his money so he can one day run his own furniture-making business but due to his bad credit the banks won't give him a loan so he has to work harder to achieve his goals. At the construction site Mike meets 19 year old Adam and later introduces him to the stripping world as Adam is thrust onto the stage after veteran stripper Tarzan is too inebriated to perform. Through his relationship with Adam, Mike also meets his sister Brooke who is worried about her brother and asks for Mike's help however it seems she doesn't want a relationship with him because of what he does. As the film goes on we see Dallas attempt to expand the act, Adam getting into his new life and Mike trying to escape the stripping world however one incident has an impact on all three.

Positives: After Contagion and Haywire, Soderbergh continues his exploitation films with this look at the male stripping industry pitching it halfway between sleazy and glamorous. Soderbergh's visuals making the stripping scenes come alive, which I know won't appeal to most people, which really explains why the women can't get enough of these guys. Channing Tatum is actually pretty decent here excelling at playing the everyman and really making us empathise with Mike who has a dream but is constantly put down by the man. He has a believable chemistry with Cody Horn, who plays Brooke, and by the end of the film you are really willing them to get together. The real stand-out in Magic Mike is Matthew McConaughey who presents Dallas both as a showman and a businessman getting quite ruthless when he realises how much Adam and Mike may have jeopardised his business. McConaughey's performance is so good that I could honestly see him being nominated as Best Supporting Actor at next year's Oscars as Dallas is the sort of character that could well appeal to the academy.

Negatives: I have to say I don't think English actor Alex Pettyfer really had the wide-eyed innocence needed to play the part of Adam successfully and by the end he'd just come off as brattish. I also felt Olivia Munn wasn't given much to do as Mike's occasional sex buddy Joanna.

Verdict: Soderbergh suceeds in directing another well-shot and engaging exploitation film with two great performances from McConaughey and Tatum so for those reasons I will give Magic Mike 8/10