Magic Mike. Rated MA 15+ (strong nudity, sexual references, coarse language and drug use). 110 minutes. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Screenplay by Reid Carolin.
Verdict: A beefcake showcase that slowly reveals itself to
be far more than it might, at first glance, seem.
While it’s certainly no The
Full Monty (1997), in which an
unlikely group of down-and-outers fight poverty with their striptease act, Magic
Mike has a good deal going for it.
At first glance, it’s an autobiographically-inspired showcase for the skills of
the indefatigable Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, Dear John, The Vow), who
started his career as a stripper. But with Carolin’s finely-balanced screenplay
and the watchful and carefully-considered eye of Soderbergh (Contagion, Traffic, Erin Brockovich), Magic
Mike gradually begins to delve
into the dark and dangerously addictive side of ‘showbusiness’ – self-delusion,
narcissism and a rampantly destructive drug-fuelled subculture.
