Magic Mike (2012)
It was hard to understand quite why Stephen Soderbergh would decide to make a film about male stripping starring Channing Tatum, but when I kept on hearing positive reviews for the film I ended up deciding that I was just going to have to see for myself. The obsession with this movie from the guys at Filmdrunk (who coined the nickname "C-Tates" for the lead actor) played a key role in encouraging me to see what I was missing.
Prior to checking it out, I was aware that the plot was actually supposed to be pretty well rounded and that, if anything, women who went to see "Magic Mike" for the stripping felt a little misinformed about the content of this film. (I'm told that there's an option on the DVD to deal with this, allowing you to watch all the stripping scenes and to miss out the plot. I'm not big on DVD extras, so I didn't notice.)
The plot is simple but effective. It's not a groundbreakingly new story and it relies on the performances to keep the audience interested. Fortunately the performances here are great. C-Tates is much more comfortable in the role of a charming stripper than he was in the role of a Roman Centurion (in "The Eagle") and every moment he is on screen he not only plays the role convincingly but also managed to make me laugh on a number of occasions. It's all very well to say that he's playing himself (since the story is somewhat based on his life), but being connected to a story doesn't mean you can act it, never mind pull people into the story with your performance.
Another awesome aspect of C-Tates role is the power play between him and Matthew McConaughey, who essentially runs their stripping um... troupe? What with "Magic Mike", "Killer Joe", and "Mud" (from the director of "Take shelter" coming out later this year), McConaughey seems to have finally escaped from making cheesy romantic comedies and actually seems to be appearing in films worth watching for a change. He gives a really strong performance here and I don't remember him ever being such a strong actor in films like "Contact" or "View To A Kill".
The basic plot is this. C-Tates is a stripper, but his real passion lies in custom furniture. His dream is to set up his own custom furniture business and to work on that full time and he hopes that the money he makes from stripping, along with some construction work, will allow his dream to come true.
He manages to persuade a new guy to join their stripping gig and, since the new guy's been having little luck with employment recently, he soon comes around to the idea and starts taking it seriously. C-Tates then comes to meet the new guy's sister, who had been giving her brother a place to sleep while he looked for work. She's not convinced that C-Tates is a safe figure for her brother to hang around with and initially she's not at all sure what the two of them are mixed up in.
C-Tates becomes heavily emotionally invested with both of them coming to care a great deal for the sister and feeling responsible for the brother. What could go wrong? (Yes, that means something goes wrong.)
I've already noted that this story doesn't really go anywhere surprising, but the performances really sell it. As you tell from the synopsis I've provided, this is a character driven piece and the characters are admittedly pretty good. But now it's probably time to address the elephant in the room: The stripping scenes!
Well I must admit that the stripping scenes are over-the-top and yet highly creative, so far from tapping my foot and waiting for them to end, I actually found those bits highly entertaining. One particularly memorable routine features the strippers all dressed as marines while Matthew MacConaughey stands in the middle wearing a glittery top hat decorated by the stars and stripes and brandishing a stripey marching pole. After some military chanting about the size of particular strippers' private parts, the strippers do a well-rehearsed routine where they pretend to fire machine guns from their groins. As the strippers finish their disrobing, the US flag drops down behind them.... It was so damn funny!
I don't really know the general consensus of straight women or gay men about this movie, but I can assure you that there's nothing stopping straight men out there from enjoying this film. It's got a good solid plot, even if nothing much happens overall, and there are a number of solid characters. C-Tates is actually really good in the lead role, regardless of what you may have felt about his previous performances.
B-
If you want to see my review of "Child's Play" it's available on Halloween Candy here.