“Good job on the movie marketers for opening a movie that all the boys will flock to and one that all the girls will flock to in the same weekend. I, of course, choose both. Somewhere over the course of this past week, the buzz for Magic Mike was picking up over the buzz for Ted, thus making Mike my Saturday movie.
A lot of what I was reading this week on the subject was singing the praises of Mike that had nothing to do with what Channing Tatum is or isnt wearing in the movie. These reviews and articles and such pointed out the story was worthwhile, and also tried to inform the boys that there were girl parts as well. Sure, I suppose you could call what happened a story. I call it nothing special.
The trailers made it seem like the plot was a love story. That turned out to be the smallest of the subplots. The main story was more of a “”little boy lost”” sorta deal, but there didn’t seem to be much substance to it. Just as that was maybe starting to get rolling a bit, we turn a turn for the dark and cliche with drugs. While I appreciate the darker fare, it felt forced. And no one ever truly hit bottom. It was approached, but didnt feel like that story went as deep as it could have. Basically, what I’m getting at, is that Magic Mike had a great gimmick–Channing Tatum as a stripper–but they didnt really know how to build an entire movie around it. So they took some easy routes and never really had much at stake. And then it just sorta ended.
My other gripe was in a lot of the dialogue, or more specifically, in the delivery. So many interactions, in particular between Magic Mike and our leading lady Brooke, just felt so \m/ awkward. They stuttered and backtracked and never completed sentances and had trouble getting thoughts across. While you could argue that the point of that was to give the film realism, I’ll counter that by saying you go to movies for escapism, not realism. But while some of the dialgoue was painful to sit thru, some of it was great. When Magic Mike was on his game, his smooth talking lady chatting was kind of a turn on. I simultaneously wanted him to talk to me, but was afraid of him putting my socially awkward penguin on the spot.
But of course, the biggest turn on of the movie? The dancing. I’d like to point out that yes it was technically stripping, but there was a high production value to their performances. Decent choreography, and those boys (Tatum in particular) can DANCE. I was a little bummed that we never saw much character development from our supporting boys, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, and Adam Rodriguez, but oooh did they make yummy eye candy. The club scenes did drop off part way thru the movie, which was a shame, but they certainly returned in full force.
I guess for my final thought, I’ll say this. I can see why they’re trying to emphasize that this movie isn’t just for those who wanna see the boys in tiny costumes. And I will attest to the fact that there is more going on in the movie than than. However, the other goings on aren’t anything special. So if you dont wanna watch the boys, dont bother. If you do, it’s worth it
Magic Mike – \m/ \m/ \m/