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The Hooker / Stripper with a Heart of Gold has become a pretty standard staple of books and movies and TV. She’s down on her luck…trying to make ends meet…struggling to support her kid…putting herself through school. It’s all pretty typical stuff. What isn’t typical, however, is when she’s a he.
In Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, Channing Tatum stars as an unconventional Stripper with a Heart of Gold. Mike works all kinds of jobs, managing a variety of businesses, trying to save the money to start his own custom furniture business. By day, he tiles Tampa’s roofs. By night, he gets up on stage and dances for a room full of screaming women at a club called Xquisite.
When a wayward 19-year-old named Adam (Alex Pettyfer) shows up at his worksite one day, Mike agrees to help him out—which leads to Adam joining the guys at the club. But while new kid Adam is basking in the thrill of the job, veteran stripper Mike realizes that he needs something more.
If it weren’t for 21 Jump Street, I’ll admit that I probably would have dreaded the thought of sitting through Magic Mike. But, in his first big comedic role, Tatum showed that he could actually act—and Magic Mike shows that he’s only getting better. Considering Tatum’s history as a real-life stripper (the movie, after all, was inspired by his own experiences) and his dance movie background, his mesmerizing dance moves come as no big surprise. What is a surprise, however, is his range as Mike, moving from comedy to drama to on-stage acts with bumbling but believable charm. It seems as though the actor may finally be hitting his stride.
Meanwhile, the film gets an additional boost from Matthew McConaughey, who couldn’t have been more perfectly cast as leather-clad club owner Dallas. He’s loud and crazy and completely over-the-top—and, really, if there were one role that he was born to play, it’s this one.
Thanks to McConaughey and his crew of male dancers, then, Magic Mike is often wildly entertaining—complete with outrageously choreographed and sometimes unabashedly corny acts. The cast members never take their parts too seriously—which makes it all the more fun for the audience, too.
Still, the film isn’t as wildly funny as you might expect. The story is somewhat thin, but it does include a hint of romance involving Adam’s disapproving sister (played by a painfully flat Cody Horn) and some touches of drama that show the darker side of the dancers’ world. While the drama tends to be a downer in the midst of the amusingly imaginative adult entertainment, though, it all balances out quite well.
Granted, Magic Mike isn’t an all-audiences kind of movie. It’s obviously quite racy (though not as racy as you might expect). And you probably won’t see a whole lot of straight guys waiting in line to buy their tickets. But, thanks to its fun-loving cast, it’s the perfect pick for a wild and crazy night at the movies with the girls.
Blu-ray Review:
I rarely rave about a movie’s special features—since they’re usually just the same old deleted scenes and trailers and chatty making-of features. But I can’t remember the last time I was quite as amused by a collection of extras as I was by those included on the Magic Mike Blu-ray release.
It’s no big secret that the most entertaining part of the film is its outrageous dance numbers—and the Blu-ray release definitely capitalizes on that. Forget about the story; the special features are all about the dancing. The Dance Play Mode allows you to watch all of the dance numbers (nearly 19 minutes’ worth) back-to-back. And if that’s still not enough, the deleted scenes offer nine minutes of additional dance footage. Though the best numbers definitely made it to the movie—and there aren’t as many extra scenes as I was expecting (or maybe hoping for)—they’re still worth checking out.
If, after taking in all of the wild-and-crazy dance action, you’d actually like to hear what the guys have to say, be sure to check out the short making-of feature, which touches on the inspiration for the story, the creative choreography, and more. Though it’s not an in-depth feature, it’s definitely an entertaining one, as the guys discuss things like letting go of their inhibitions and their on-set camaraderie.
Really, my only complaint about the extras on the Magic Mike Blu-ray release is that there should have been more of them. I would have happily watched more deleted scenes and listened to more cast interviews. And I rarely feel that way about special features. So, after watching this unconventional stripper movie, be sure to stick around for the after-party.
