Film Review: Magic Mike

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.

Film Review: Contagion

Contagion. Rated M (mature themes and infrequent coarse language). 106 minutes. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Screenplay by Scott Burns.

With his breakthrough independent feature Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), Steven Soderbergh created one of the most important and talked-about films of the 1990s – before delivering the outstanding Oscar-winners Erin Brockovich and Traffic (2000). His passion for big, star-fuelled ensembles reached its zenith with Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and sequels Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007).

A-list Hollywood casts (Clooney, Damon, Pitt, Roberts, Law, etc) give the impression of being prepared to do practically anything to appear in a Soderbergh film – so the polite way to respond to the monumental bore that is Contagion would just be to smile and say “Whoops.”

When a killer virus threatens to rapidly eradicate a large percentage of the world’s population (starting with Gwyneth Paltrow’s jet-setting Beth, pictured), the best brains in the scientific and health world (Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Elliott Gould and Jennifer Ehle leading the field) must first work out how to contain the spread of the virus, while racing against time to develop a vaccine.

Equal parts geography lesson, science lesson and Dettol commercial, Contagion constantly threatens to ramp up the tension, the thrills and the chills and yet absolutely fails to be able to do so. The set-up shows real promise, as besieged experts from all over the world prepare to take on the threat of a global pandemic as people start to either froth at the mouth and die and/or panic.

Containing nothing of the genre’s genuine horror/thriller potential (of which I Am Legend and 28 Days Later are just two vastly superior examples), what remains incomprehensible is the extent to which the acting talent on hand (Matt Damon and Jude Law round out the stellar cast) is utterly wasted in scene after ponderous scene of over-produced, self-reverential tedium.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group and the print edition is included below.