Magic Mike

Steven Soderbergh's "Magic Mike" is short on needed magic. The promised backstage tale of male strippers conjures images of sexy men, pulsating music, and erotic choreography. Unfortunately, the expected companion piece to "Flashdance" or "Footloose" is not even "The Full Monty." Magic Mike, competently played by Channing Tatum, is a construction worker by day, a stripper by night, and a furniture designer by ambition. A fellow hard hat on the construction site, Adam, played by Alex Pettyfer, is drawn into Mike's stripper world by the lure of easy money and even easier sex. Little unexpected happens, and the audience for naked male flesh and sexual couplings is better served at the local porn shop.

The dialog is lame and often delivered listlessly. Perhaps strippers and their friends are low-key characters and talk like Mike and his friends, but eyes glaze and brains go numb after nearly two hours spent in their company. A physically fit Matthew McConaughey looks almost cadaverous as Dallas, the strippers' tough manager. However, McConaughey is effective, and his scenes resuscitate the film when he is on screen, which is all too briefly. Despite his age, McConaughey has the vulgar moves, the erotic gyrations, and the sexual aura that the other supposed strippers lack.

"Magic Mike" drags on and seems longer than it is. Soderbergh inserts a few arty shots, but generally fails to even capture the excitement of a "Flashdance," a glossy construction-worker-cum-dancer feature-length music video that moved to a beat and never bored. The music herein is forgettable at best, and the dancing owes more to Las Vegas posturing than Broadway or discotheques. Perhaps Soderbergh was the wrong director for the project, which was an odd choice for the man who made "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich." Magic Mike's story is unexpectedly downbeat, and the angst of a frustrated furniture designer is low on entertainment value. While the film will likely draw and disappoint gay and female audiences, perhaps men can relate most to Mike and his checkered career in pursuit of a dream However, few straight men will venture into a movie with the advertising and subject matter of "Magic Mike."

The usherette tittered when I bought my ticket. 'Why do you laugh?' I asked. 'Because only girls are watching this'. Clearly this is someone who doesn't believe in the universality of cinema. Yes, Steven Soderbergh's latest features male strippers, and yes it will appeal more to a certain demographic, but so will every film. Audiences may be disparate but films are androgynous. Or should be.

As 'Magic' Mike, charming Channing Tatum naturally gets top billing, but the film revolves around Adam (rising star Alex Pettyfer). Adam is a congenital loser, the kind of guy who refuses to wear a tie and wonders why he can't sustain a job. He lives with his sister, Brooke (Cody Horn), whose acting conveys a suspicion of men, presumably because she has only her wayward brother as a yardstick.

Adam finds work on a construction site with Mike, who sees the desperation of Adam's situation and entices him to join his exotic dancing troupe, Xquisite, led by Dallas (Matthew McConaughey). Dallas astutely exploits Adam's naivety by branding him 'The Kid', an amateurish, sloppy act, which the ladies love. The next three months are a non-stop orgy of girls, booze and drugs: everything a man like Adam could wish for.

This lifestyle has lost its appeal for Mike, now 30, who only took up professional undressing to become a bespoke furniture salesman. He no longer wishes to hold out for the phantom 10% of the business Dallas keeps promising him, but poor credit keeps him on the pole. (Tatum again stars in a role which brings out his effortless charisma and sweetness.)

McConaughey recently impressed me in William Friedkin's 'Killer Joe', and now this film has completely changed my mind about him. He's gone from my dud to my stud list in just two films. And Pettyfer works because he doesn't work, if you see what I mean. Although an ex-model, he's not 'stripper material' (not that I'd know much about that sort of thing), yet there's a naturalness to his acting, which works.

Although not in the same league as some of Soderbergh's other titles (notably 'Traffic' and 'Out of Sight'), there's enough going on to warrant a viewing. Characters are well written, lives intersect in an unforced manner, motivations are believable. There's plenty of saucy (and quite impressive) dancing to keep the majority of this film's audience happy, but there's also a decent story for those who aren't watching exclusively for nudity.

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So many elements that could have made this a truly original movie. Instead it's confusing, meandering and ultimately pointless. Alex Pettyfer, the innocent entering the world of male strippers has a good face a great body but lacks life, yes, that's it, he's kind of lifeless. Channing Tatum, whose story, apparently, this is, has a body that seems to have been shaped by a genius, but a face that looks slightly unfinished. I didn't get his character at all. As an actor Channing tries far too hard. Matthew McConaughey is a hoot, Great chest and he seems to be relishing the spotlight. So, all in all, entertaining and little, very little else.

Magic Mike is a good movie with a well developed storyline and an impressive cast. It's an enjoyable movie that brings in many laughs, as well as terrific performances from the entire cast, the chemistry between everyone is great, particularly the parts between Channing Tatum and Cody Horn, they both seemed to really enjoy being in each other's company and their scenes were very natural. It's a really slow movie and can admittedly get very boring at times, there are a lot of very lengthy scenes were the characters are literally just talking, while they are well acted and serve as a great method for character development, they can still get very tedious, they could have easily trimmed a lot of scenes and made it a more bearable ninety minute run. The highlight of the movie is definitely Matthew McConaughey, playing a character unlike one he has ever played before, he is very natural and charismatic in the role of Dallas, his scenes certainly had me entertained the most. It may be very slow, but Magic Milke is still an enjoyable movie that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good, easy to watch, comedy if you ever see it on television and had some time to kill.

A male stripper teaches a newcomer how to handle the lifestyle, while a relationship develops between him and the newcomers sister.

Best Performance: Matthew McConaughey

I was a stripper. Yes, I was. I was fairly good too.

This film however doesn't capture the reality behind the stage, on-stage or even the crowd.

The reality is that the male dancers - or even female dancers aren't all friends...they are greedy, selfish ego tripping characters who look forward only to the dollars. They fight backstage, they get drunk back stage and they do serious amounts of coke back stage.

Most male dancers are also gay. I am not and for that reason, the few men that are not gay will be reading "picture books" behind the curtain to ensure that they are "up" to the challenge when they are on stage.

The gay men will be taking care of each other respectively before they go on stage.

Most female crowds are mostly fat, overweight women who are nearing 50 and are there to get totally drunk. Male dancers will go to the table for them and pull everything off, but will not take them on-stage and perform nasty acts - clothed or unclothed.

Also - we didn't have groups of 5 or 6 go up on-stage and perform a routine set. With people travelling all the time and new people coming in and out, we barely knew who each other was from a daily basis.

Nobody fraternized with the bar-staff after closing...everybody was tired, stressed or too stoned to do anything. The bar-staff closed up and everybody got kicked out.

If anybody tried to do a back-flip on-stage, they would have been fired or told not to do that again...because of liability and safety and insurance reasons.

We made our money doing lap dances...not having a hundred girls throw money in our underwear on-stage.

The back room dressing areas were always slightly better than a warehouse - filled with all sorts of bar crap...regardless of the bar or location.

Anybody under the legal limit would never be allowed on-stage. There was always vice to make sure.

There was always so much tension in the dressing room...because we were competing for the same money, that more than the mere basic communication between dancers never existed.

This is a film based on the male stripper occupation, but misses out on the reality of it.

It's also over drawn for plot. So much could be edited out and would not make a difference to the story.

I was looking forward to see this, and I finally did. Wow...too long to watch a movie to see next to nothing of interest.