Magic Mike

Woo hoo!!!! A professional stripper named Mike takes a newbie under his well-developed wing to teach him the ropes about being a man: how to pick up women, how to party hard and how to make easy money. The problem is, the newbie is 19, irresponsible and immature.

Director Steven Soderbergh got the idea for this story while talking with Channing Tatum during the filming of "Haywire." He discovered that Mr. C. had been a male stripper when he was 19 and was trying to write a script about his experiences. Soderbergh was very interested, so script- writer Reid Carolin was called in to do the honors.

Our theater was packed with young women who squealed and hooted through the first two-thirds of this movie. They LOVED the stripping, the production numbers, the choreography, the costumes and the actors! Had it been possible, they too, would have stuffed money into those thongs the men wore.

We saw a LOT of:

• Channing Tatum ("21 Jump Street") is our hero, this guy really CAN dance. Tatum broke into Hollywood's B-list by gyrating in a few teenie-bopper flicks, e.g., "Step Up," with simple dance steps and no acting. He moved into action films like "G. I. Joe" based on his (noteworthy) physique, plus a couple of two-hankie chick flicks like "The Vow." Now an A-lister, Channing does reasonably good work with funny dialogue, gymnastics, great steps and respect- able stripping.
• Matthew McConaunghey ("The Lincoln Lawyer") is the Adonis ...oops... business guy, who runs the show. Yes girls, he does strip! But he also has a business to run and a payroll to meet.
• Alex Pettyfer ("Beastly") is our loose cannon, easily led down the primrose path...to his sister's alarm.
• Cody Horn ("Occupant") is the frustrated sister trying to raise a 19 year old; she knows how erratic he is and has no idea how she can get his life under control...maybe Mike can help.
• Matt Bomer ("White Collar"), Reid Carolin (usually on the pro- duction or writing end of things), Joe Manganiello ("True Blood") and Adam Rodriguez ("CSI Miami") round out the on-stage cast.

By the final credits, there were some disappointed audience members, in fact one woman said, "Why'd they have to go and put in a story, too!" However, Your's Truly was not overly disappointed; instead I was inter- ested in the steady growth of Channing Tatum's profile in Hollywood, as an actor, a personality and a guy who can do comic lines...and there were MANY comic lines. Yeah, the story is flimsy, but all that eye candy made it easy to forgive ("A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down...").

Kudos to the folks who spent the extra money to give us great final credits: the actor's name and a shot of the character. This is SO helpful and something we really appreciate!

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Here is a link to a preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi889627417/
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