Ryan McNeil
It always looks like so much fun – working what your mama gave you, making money, staying up late and keeping the party going. Put if you’ll pardon the pun, stripping can be a real grind. Not only do you have to work the crowd, but sometimes you need to go out there and bring in the crowd. Choreography, costumes, gimmicks? All you. Still, how much of a grind can it be when you have women fawning over you night after night?
Our story begins with Adam and Mike (Alex Pettyfer and Channing Tatum). Adam doesn’t have much going for him at 19 years old. He has no relationship, no prospects, no job – the jobs he can land are usually under-the-table. It’s at one such job that he meets Mike. Mike does have a few irons in the fire, but it’s his most lucrative that will involve Adam.
Mike and Adam run into each other again one night outside a club, and it’s this night that Mike reveals to Adam that he’s a stripper at a club called Xquisite. The show, hosted by the group’s top dog “Dallas” (Matthew McConoughey), involves five guys working the nightly crowd of women into a sexual fervour with their machismo, muscles and moves. During the course of the show, the group hits a gap in the programme. Void of any better ideas, Mike throws Adam out on stage. While both Mike and Dallas agree that Adam cannot dance, they see promise in him and bring him into the fold.
This new life course doesn’t sit all that well with Adam’s roommate – his sister Brooke (Cody Horn). Even after seeing him perform – which is followed by her getting an eyeful of Mike – she fears that something about this lifestyle will spell trouble for Adam. Mike, who has taken a shining to Brooke, assures her that he will watch over Adam and make sure that all of those fawning women and dollar bills don’t go to his head.
MAGIC MIKE is ridiculous all around, but ridiculous in a way that befits its subject matter. I’m of the opinion that all stripping is absurd (sorry, “exotic dancing”), but the boys seem to raise it to a whole different absurdity level. They aren’t only up there to drop trou, they’re up there to bring women in on the action and get good and lewd. There’s nothing wrong with it, but when you watch such things you can’t help but laugh. This film is at its best when it understands this absurdity and plays it up. Between the various corny routines they take part in to all of the backstage shenanigans, all of the guys who have signed on for this movie dive head-first into the waters of sexual silliness.
One of the unexpected highlights of the film is Matthew McConoughey. I can’t say I’ve ever given the man a whole lot of credit for his acting chops, but it’s clear that he understands what film he is in and he is dedicated to selling it. Watching him run that club is one of the best parts of the film, since he not only plays up his role as the emcee with bravado, but he also becomes something of a den mother to the guys. He pulls no punches when it comes to the slimy outlandishness of his character, and totally commits to the part. He might well be the best I’ve ever seen him during one early training scene with Adam. If what he’s wearing doesn’t sell you, the way he teaches will.
That all-around ridiculousness I mentioned is not always a positive thing. MAGIC MIKE’s biggest downfall is easily its script and where the script decides to go in the final act. I won’t get into specifics of course, but I will say that the story decides to take something that started off silly and fun and tries to jam it somewhere serious. This is a shame because not only does it completely slam the brakes on the amusement the audience was getting early on, but it also takes something novel and turns it into something common. The final act of MAGIC MIKE feels like the final act of a lot of other “star is born” stories I’ve been told, and nobody involved in that side of the plot has the chops to pull it off. Of course, if McConoughey was involved…
One other curiosity to the film is how most of the other dancers aren’t (pardon the expression) fleshed out. Mike, Adam, and Dallas dominate the goings on, while Ken, Tito, Tarzan, and Big Dick Richie act as a chorus to fill out the stage. I gotta believe that the film could have been a fuller experience if we’d seen even a glimmer into these men’s lives, but I can’t count it as a huge strike against the film. Every stage show has its share of background players, and a stripshow isn’t any different. Finding out why Tarzan is still stripping when he’s the same age as Dallas would have been swell, but it’s not this movie.
Reflecting on MAGIC MIKE, it almost feels more like a loss than a win. The pedestrian third act sucks a lot of the life out of it, which is a pity considering how fun the film begins with. What’s worse is that you have to believe that the film will have a slight uphill climb for an audience given its subject matter. This will always be known as “that stripper movie”, and while I enjoyed the film a great deal, and do recommend it, it doesn’t do anything to elevate itself above its label.
Messy third act aside, MAGIC MIKE works. The reason why it works, is underlined when Mike explains to Brooke why Adam is taking so well to stripping. Mike points out that while Adam may never have seemed like the stripping sort before, he’s now in a routine where he’s having fun, surrounded by women and making a lot of money. Those elements – fun, sex, and money – could make almost any story work. They represent the good life, and all play well with the film’s Florida summer setting, and indeed make MAGIC MIKE work.
Yup! You nailed this one.
The first couple of acts were VERY fun, very enjoyable, especially due to McConaughey – who was freaking hysterical.
But then the third act, wow. I mean, it wasnt badly done, it just felt like the movie didnt know what it wanted to be. I wish they could have found some way to make it a comedy throughout.
Spot on Ryan.
Every time the movie found the cheek to have McConoughey play the bongos I damned near lost it. Talk about meta!
Still, I’m of the opinion that a lacklustre ending shouldn’t spoil an entire film’s worth of goodwill, so I’m focusing on the positive and trying to ignore where it all goes.
That’s a good policy, especially here.
I didnt think it was bad, per se, it just seemed like such a cliched choice to make.
It’s a good policy for life my friend, not just here!
It does feel familiar…but maybe it’s familiar for a reason. I mean, what other way could a story like this end?
hmmm clearly the trailer doesn’t do anything for it. i plan to rent this.
I actually never watched the trailer. There are certain talents in Hollywood who always get me saying “I’m in!”, and Soderbergh is one. Knowing that, I figured it was best I go in as blind as possible.
I was actually a little disappointed with the film. And would agree that McConaughey was probably the best part of it, although I did enjoy Tatum for the most part 🙂
Hmm . . . I guess the third act did suck a bit of the fun out of it, but I can imagine critics getting all fidgety and annoyed if we got to see only the fun part and not the “serious and realistic” part of being a stripper.
The film definitely had its issues, many of which you mentioned, but it was pretty fun. Nice review, Ryan!
It wasn’t the seriousness or realism that got me in the end; more so that I found myself caring about Mike more than Adam and I feel like he got short-changed in this story. Still, not a big enough misstep to take down the whole story.
Now reply to my email dammit!
Great review, Ryan! This looks very fun but it seems it suffered from the same ailment that Soderbergh’s previous, Haywire: a messy third act.
Hmmm, I actually quite enjoyed the third act of HAYWIRE.
I wouldn’t say the third act of MIKE is messy more than it is pedestrian. After having so much fun and surrounding us with cool characters, the story goes somewhere pretty damned familiar in its final third. It doesn’t sink the whole thing, but did leave me wondering what might have been.