I wish I could say that I wanted to see Magic Mike because I was hoping the Steven Soderbergh film would show me the serious side of male stripping, that I wanted the venerable director of films like Erin Brockovich and Traffic to show me how very challenging it is to make exotic dancing a career.
by Shannon Vestal
I wish I could say that I wanted to see Magic Mike because I was hoping the Steven Soderbergh film would show me the serious side of male stripping, that I wanted the venerable director of films like Erin Brockovich and Traffic to show me how very challenging it is to make exotic dancing a career. But who are we kidding? I wanted to see Magic Mike for its simple hook: a cast of very good-looking men in minimal clothing. Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello and Matthew McConaughey play Tampa's hottest strippers, and they take it all off while exposing us to their lifestyle and integrating a new dancer, played by Alex Pettyfer. The movie is a lot of scandalous fun — but only when the guys are on stage.
We're introduced to the world of male stripping through Mike (Tatum), and though "Magic Mike" (as he's known on stage) is a star at the club Xquisite, he has bigger aspirations than shaking his moneymaker. He wants to start a furniture business, and he has a heart under all those muscles, which we see via two new relationships: a friendship with Adam (Pettyfer) and a flirtation with Adam's sister, Brooke (Cody Horn). Adam loves Xquisite's spotlight a bit too much, and he soon develops a few bad habits, but Soderbergh's attempt to show us the seedy side of the dancing life is undeveloped and uneven. The dark undertones of the plot feel out of place and, worse, boring, especially compared to the movie's jaw-dropping stripping scenes. To find out what else I thought, just keep reading.
