Classic Review: Magic Mike (2012)

Magic Mike follows a 19-year-old named Adam (Pettyfer) who enters the world of male stripping under the guidance of Mike Lane aka Magic Mike (Tatum). Mike’s been in the stripper business for several years and has his own plans for a future before he meet’s and shows Adam the ropes while also teaching him how to party, pick up women, and make easy money. While many went into this expecting a silly stripper comedy or something along the lines of the male version of Showgirls, what audiences actually got was a surprisingly thoughtful, insightful, and mature character study that showed viewers a lifestyle rarely captured on film before while at the same time delivering big laughs and giving viewers the excellently choreographed dance sequences they came for.

The year the film was released was truly a breakthrough year for Tatum who up until that point was more well known for his looks or disappointing movies than his acting abilities or charisma. But between Haywire, The Vow, 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike (all of which released within 6 months of each other), everybody started to take him a lot more seriously as an actor and he became a movie star essentially overnight. Tatum has shown tons of range in all of his projects and has successfully tackled many different genres in the years since but his performance in Magic Mike still ranks up there with one of his very best. Since Tatum himself was once a male stripper with the screenplay being partially based on his own personal experiences, viewers can tell how much this character and world means to him and he pours his heart and soul into this role. Not only does he deliver a great performance, but his dance skills are simply terrific and he’s easily the best dancer out of the entire cast. Even though he shares the screen equally with Pettyfer’s character, Mike is the heart of the film and a character that the audience grows very attached to within the first few minutes of meeting him.

While the film isn’t as focused on the ensemble cast as much as the sequel and doesn’t dedicate nearly as much screen time to them, the entire cast is clearly having a lot of fun playing these characters and they all leave an impact no matter how big or small their screentime may be. Pettyfer’s Adam arguably has more screen time than Tatum’s Mike and while he might not be as interesting of a character or can come off as across as bit unlikeable by the end, there’s no denying Pettyfer is great in the role and brings exactly what that character needed. It’s was widely reported that him and Tatum didn’t get along at all during filming but that’s never apparent on screen as they both work quite well together and one can really buy into their mentor/mentee relationship. Although, nobody was really complaining it would’ve been interesting to see what direction they would’ve taken that character in, in the sequels.

Cody Horn is also very good as Brooke as she works well with both Tatum and Pettyfer. It’s a shame she hasn’t gone on to do a whole lot outside of this. Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomber, Kevin Nash and Adam Rodriguez aren’t given a ton to do especially compared to their roles in in 2015’s Magic Mike XXL, but they bring humor and entertainment when they’re on screen and are capable enough dancers. The biggest scene stealer is by far McConaughey’s Dallas, who’s absolutely hysterical in this and whose character is ultimately a lot deeper and darker than first glance. Olivia Munn also deserves a shoutout for being great here and for having one of the more interesting characters in the film.

This was released at a time when Steven Soderbergh was operating on another level and it’s one of his better and more entertaining films. His directorial style really fits the story this is telling and like most of his movies as it is shot gorgeously. The Florida setting is almost its own character and there’s lot of stunning sights to behold on screen. The only real problem here is that it might go on slightly longer than it needs to and has a few scenes in the second act that feel a bit repetitive but otherwise this holds up over 10-years later and somehow has only gotten better with age. It’s tough to pick which is the better film of the two because this and its sequel are going for two different things but this first film might get the slight edge overall.

Hopefully Magic Mike’s Last Dance is on par with the first two films.

still courtesy of Warner Bros.

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/