Magic Mike is an insider look at the lives of male strippers in Florida. (Apparently Magic Mike is loosely based on Tatum’s own early career—so clearly his talents lie elsewhere than acting.) For a movie about buff men de-robing and gyrating, it’s exceedingly boring with minimal plot development. Mike takes a 19-year-old stripper-in-training, Adam the “kid” (Alex Pettyfer), under his wing, showing him how to make it in the industry and immersing him in a culture of drugs and sex. Adam has a protective older sister (Cody Horn)—so there’s Tatum’s sort-of love interest. For Mike, stripping is a mean’s to an end (kind of like the actor/server shtick)—yeah, he’s “good with his hands” and likes to make weird furniture in his down time, but you probably won’t care too much about that when, in the movie’s second hour, things move at a snail’s pace, and you’re checking your watch every five minutes.
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2012.
