Magic Mike: A Última Dança

Safe to say this is the worst Magic Mike movie. It's boring more often than not and plays it way too safe. Women are more naked in a burlesque show than these men were. Why exactly is this rated R? Today's music videos are more R-rated than this. I would say the most entertaining scene was the lap dance Channing Tatum gives Salma Hayek but other than that most of the movie is just her whining about the show they're going to put on and when the show finally comes it's not nearly as exciting as it should be. I know plenty will say it but I'd rather this movie had been a Step Up movie and them just left Magic Mike at the sequel. Compared to the other two it was just an unfun ride. Also on a side note when she's going through the different types of men that "women want" a CEO that pays women more than men? I thought the goal was to be equal allegedly? And how about a man with a puppy! Men have dogs all the time how about a man that puts the seat down or does the dishes. Anyway unlike the other two I'll never see this one again.

I'll admit I've never watch the first two Magic Mike films, but after seeing this I guess I wasn't missing much. I took interest in this film cause Salma Hayek is in this, and she always seems to make anything better, but does she here, not quite.

Now don't get me wrong, Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek have proving that they very talented actors, and shown that they are more than just pretty faces. But they just don't click with each other, I felt Tatum had better chemistry with Sandra Bullock in The Lost City. Nothing for me really jumps out, the acting is null and void. Two new characters are amusing, but really serve no purpose here. Now dance scenes are okay, but the rest of the movie is not.

This was supposed to go out with a bang. But it's fell way off the mark.

I know the original dancers were older now but i think they could've worked them in some how. This film just feels forced.

Salma Hayek plays a woman who probably didn't have much money of her own and was able to sway a wealthy British man with her physical assets and marry him, only to divorce him and come out of it with a big paycheck for herself. She's obviously a woman who never wants for anything and is extremely privileged and bored. So now her latest passion project is this "last show" for Mike. She's also a woman with huge self-esteem issues and likes to put words in peoples mouth in order to gaslight them into thinking they're saying something offensive to her. Hayek's acting just wasn't good in this. And honestly her character was annoying and took away from the film.

To put a cherry on top we're also forced to contend with a spoiled, entitled, wise cracking and stereotypical modern teenager who tries to come off as deep and philosophical with the intermittent narration of the ideology of dance. While this character isn't the worst in this film (Hyek's character is), it definitely doesn't add to the story.

In summary, the whole movie just didn't have the same energy or direction as the first two. It seems like this was a cash grab with aim of maximizing profits off of the Magic Mike name and franchise. I really thought this movie was going to be good. But we're just left with a product that was rushed and lazily written.

The third & final chapter of the Magic Mike trilogy, Last Dance follows the titular stripper as he returns for one last gig after a wealthy socialite makes him an offer he couldn't refuse. Neither an exploration of the male stripping profession nor an unabashed celebration of female desire that its predecessors were, this final outing is all about letting Mike head out on his own terms.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Trilogy & Logan Lucky), the film marks his own return to the franchise after the first picture and once again finds him digging deeper than necessary to turn the premise into something more than it needs to be. XXL expertly cracked the code on what it should be about but the director has different plans and makes all the wrong decisions.

The story begins on an incredibly promising note with an erotic, steamy & passionate lap dance but instead of riding on that early momentum provided by that sequence, the interest is allowed to fizzle out as it adds plot threads that require work from scratch. The romance subplot proves to be ineffective and it isn't until the final showdown that the film truly regains its sexual energy.

Overall, Magic Mike's Last Dance had the potential to make the most of Mike's final outing but squanders the opportunity by going into places it didn't need to. The strongest scene happens during the opening moments and then it is a frustrating long wait before something interesting happens again. Arguably the weakest of the three despite Channing Tatum's excellent input & outstanding dance choreography.

It's been almost eight years since the release of the Magic Mike XXL, which, in my opinion, gave the story the closure it needed. I enjoyed the first two films, minus the cheesy stripper dancing, because they gave you a feel for the lives these men lead as opposed to solely focusing on the stripping aspect. It was surprisingly engrossing. With Magic Mike's Last Dance, it does almost the opposite by focusing solely on Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek's phony romantic plot device as an excuse for Magic Mike to put on one final show, setting the film into a complete fantasy.

Now, don't get me wrong. I usually love Salma Hayek, but her acting in this film was terrible. I did not believe her character for one second and some of the lines she delivers are just awkward to watch. I was not buying her and Channing Tatum's romance at all. It was almost painful at times. Everybody else does a serviceable job, but when you have leads that have zero chemistry with each other, it can be a deal breaker.

Unfortunately, because of the chosen focal point for the story, the dancing also suffers. We get a decent enough show at the end, but there is only one other dancing scene in the film. The other bits of dancing are just that. Bits because they show them training to put together the show. Not one full dance number from that first dance at the beginning, all the way to the end.

Speaking of dancing, none of the dancers have any sort of personality or even play any role in the film other than to just be there as dancers. Thus bringing us back to the issue of the central plot focusing on the wrong thing. They didn't even bring back any of the original dancers to dance or even play any part in the movie besides a cameo group video chat for 2 minutes. The film even builds it up with Mike constantly dodging their phone calls but they do nothing with it and that was probably my biggest disappointment.

The only positive thing I can say about it is the direction is well executed. The camera angles, the effects and the editing work in the films favor, but that is not enough to save it from being a bad film.

Overall, I couldn't recommend it. The first two are diamonds in the rough, and this one is a rock that sinks straight down to the bottom of the ocean. If it wasn't for Steven Soderbergh's tight direction, I would rate it lower.

1.5 pumps out of 5.