Magic Mike - Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer

The Gist

  Magic Mike
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Mike works a lot of jobs. Contractor, business manager, furniture design. It's his night gig that really makes him money though. Mike is a male stripper. When he meets Adam through a contracting job, he brings him to the club to help out, and ends up getting him a job as a performer. Mike takes Adam under his wing to teach him about girls, growing up, and stripping, and tries to protect him from the seedier side of the business.

What We Think
Reviewed by Living Destiny
Run Time: 110 minutes
Rating: R
Before I even start this I have to say, I just read the tagline for this movie. "Work all day. Work it all night." That's hilarious, and probably the funniest part of this movie.
And now, I have to apologize for the gist. I thought about just writing they all strip a lot, but that didn't seem in depth enough. Although that's basically the whole plot. In the very beginning of the movie, it seemed like it had potential. The budding friendship/mentor thing going on between Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer was entertaining, and I wanted to see where it went. And then it went right down the tubes. I can't even tell you what the story is, because I don't know. It hops all over the place. And here's the thing: if this were a movie solely about stripping, like I think we all expected, that would be ok. The plot would take a backseat to the constant bombardment of muscled men taking their clothes off. But there wasn't much stripping. They really tried to have a plot, to give this movie some sort of substance. And it really didn't work. There were drugs everywhere, to the point where I couldn't tell when someone was or wasn't on drugs. There was one scene where it blatantly hinted that Alex Pettyfer and Matt Bomer, another stripper, were going gay for each other, and then it never came up again. Come to think of it, I'm not sure Matt Bomer was even in the movie after that scene. The dialogue was dull and boring, and a lot of the characters seemed unimportant. There were at least eight male strippers at one point, and I could identify half of them. 
Then there was the actual stripping. Now, I'm far from an expert on this subject. But isn't it supposed to look attractive? I mean, that is the general idea. Admittedly, we watched this movie at like 8:30 in the morning, which wasn't the best idea, but still. It in no way looked alluring. It was uncomfortable to watch. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this. Channing Tatum went up a couple times and did some hip hop dancing a la Step Up. Besides that, every dance was essentially the same, and they always ended up with a guy in a thong pulling some random girl up from the audience and pelvic thrusting into her face. Is that what stripping is? Am I just under informed? Because to me it was awkward and the exact opposite of sexy.
The characters weren't developed well. Channing Tatum was the deepest one, but since he was the main character, that made sense. And even he was pretty flat. Just a meat head, really. Some emotional depth, but not much. Channing Tatum is a fairly decent actor, but with a character like this, the acting falls short of phenomenal. He falls for Alex Pettyfer's sister Brooke, played by a Kirsten Stewart-esque Cody Horn who has the emotional range of a sloth. It seems like she's angry a lot, but she always looks bored when she's angry, so it's hard to tell. She has a boyfriend at the beginning of the movie, but essentially he's a plot device to put off a hook up with Mike. Matthew McConaughey is in this movie too. He's the business owner/manager of the strip club. Looks nice, plays dirty, the typical pretty sleaze. Nothing too exciting. He does it well, but honestly, it's been done before.
I will say, I was impressed by Alex Pettyfer. I mean, his character was awful, don't get me wrong. Acted out, didn't listen, blah blah blah. All the characters were bad. But his acting was actually good. And this is coming from the same person who said, and I quote, "his acting is centered around brooding and looking into the distance." He was so much better than the last time I saw him. He's really learning the craft, and for someone with his looks, it's not like he has to. It's nice to see, and he did well with the poor writing and lack of character development he was given. Hopefully he keeps it up, and I'll be looking for his next movie soon.
Basically, it's a stripper movie. You can't expect it to be cinematic genius. But you can expect it to be better than this. Less than two hours felt like five when I watched it, and that's not exactly a selling point. It was dull, confusing, and hard to watch. Supposedly parts of it are based on Channing Tatum's younger years. If that's what your youth was like, I'm sorry you couldn't find anything more entertaining to do.
Real Teen Rating ~ D: Use it as an excuse not to do something