Magic Mike (2012)
** (out of 4)
Rather idiotic tale of a stripper (Channing Tatum) dreaming of accomplishing something bigger in life but first he ends up taking a young guy under his wing and teaching him how to party and make money. Okay, perhaps I went into this with too high of expectations or perhaps I just completely missed something but MAGIC MIKE was an incredibly stupid, unoriginal and rather shockingly bad movie. We're not talking SHOWGIRLS bad here but with someone like Steven Soderbergh directing you'd expect much more than what we actually got here. I understand the sexual appeal it might have towards women but I have a hard time believing that even they would be fooled by this incredibly lame story that really goes nowhere. We've seen this type of story countless times with the roles reversed. Usually it's a woman doing something with their body while we all know that deep down they have something special going. This basic formula has been played out with a woman in the lead and switching the role to being played by a man doesn't make it fresh. The entire film is just full of silly situations, bad dialogue and it's all just so obvious where it's going to go. Every single scene is just so boring and so flat that it's hard for me to see how anyone could actually enjoy this. The only real saving grace are the performances with Tatum, Olivia Munn, Alex Pettyfer and James Martin Kelly doing nice work. Matthew McConaughey continues his extremely strong year with another good performance and easily steals the picture. MAGIC MIKE might appeal to some for its sex appeal but the internet is full of places to where you can get this. With a motion picture from a talented director and cast I expected a lot more.
** (out of 4)
Rather idiotic tale of a stripper (Channing Tatum) dreaming of accomplishing something bigger in life but first he ends up taking a young guy under his wing and teaching him how to party and make money. Okay, perhaps I went into this with too high of expectations or perhaps I just completely missed something but MAGIC MIKE was an incredibly stupid, unoriginal and rather shockingly bad movie. We're not talking SHOWGIRLS bad here but with someone like Steven Soderbergh directing you'd expect much more than what we actually got here. I understand the sexual appeal it might have towards women but I have a hard time believing that even they would be fooled by this incredibly lame story that really goes nowhere. We've seen this type of story countless times with the roles reversed. Usually it's a woman doing something with their body while we all know that deep down they have something special going. This basic formula has been played out with a woman in the lead and switching the role to being played by a man doesn't make it fresh. The entire film is just full of silly situations, bad dialogue and it's all just so obvious where it's going to go. Every single scene is just so boring and so flat that it's hard for me to see how anyone could actually enjoy this. The only real saving grace are the performances with Tatum, Olivia Munn, Alex Pettyfer and James Martin Kelly doing nice work. Matthew McConaughey continues his extremely strong year with another good performance and easily steals the picture. MAGIC MIKE might appeal to some for its sex appeal but the internet is full of places to where you can get this. With a motion picture from a talented director and cast I expected a lot more.