Magic Mike (Blu-ray)

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 scriptwriter 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 respectable 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 production 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 interested 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! I got an extra copy from Amazon for a gift.

I first saw this movie trailer when I saw Haywire. I did not really know who Channing Tatum was(dumb me), let alone he was in Haywire. I thought a male stripper movie. I have seen my share of male strippers and if it was going to be like watching the Chippendales, I thought how boring. Well it came out and it was going strong at the theater in July so what the hell, I went and saw it. All I can say is WOW it was raining men and and hot bods and man candy. Definitely not boring. Channing Tatum can definitely move and the dance in the red thong is Oh My God. We women finally get something decent to look at, after all the years of enduring movies where chicks get naked and the guys are drooling. So the guys get to suck it up. Seeing Channing Tatum's naked rear-end and just about everything else, makes your mouth drop open. He is drop dead gorgeous and sexy as hell and the rest are not bad on the eyes either. Joe Mangianello from True Blood is holy crap hot too. It was a pretty decent story too, not just stripping. I love the strip to KISS's Dr. Love. That was a topper for me. I highly recommend this movie to every red-blooded female out there. When Channing Tatum goes dressed as a cop to strip for the college girls it makes you want to do bad things to get arrested by him. I don't know why anybody should be surprised that this movie has done well, any woman with working eyes has seen it and probably more than once. It is still in the theaters around my home town as this is written. If it was just a dumb stripper movie, in my opinion, it would have been gone by July 1st, not spend 3 months in the theater. I can hardly wait for the sequel.

Funny

Director Stephen Soderbergh and star Channing Tatum establish an extremely relaxed atmosphere in "Magic Mike." The screenplay by Reid Carolin is loosely "inspired" by Tatum's own early days as a "male dancer/stripper." Soderbergh shoots every scene, except those inside Club Xquisite, through a double straw filter. It looks as though the camera lens has a huge ray of sunshine attached to it. It all looks so unreal. And, if the outside world of super-sunny Florida is unreal, then so is Club Xquisite. The best thing about "Magic Mike" is how it makes the life and work of male strippers "unsexy." Sex isn't sexy if it's a business, and we see how every move, bump, grind, and gyration that sends the female customers (where are the gay men in this movie? Because, trust me, gay men are the real target audience for, and are watching, this movie) into sexual frenzy is a calculated business. Captivating performances by Tatum, Matthew McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer keep things interesting.McConaughey is Dallas, the ultimately self-centered owner and mentor at Xquisite, and "Magic Mike" Lane (Tatum) is the star attraction in the stable of male hotties. Tatum has a natural confidence and charisma. At age 30, he is smart enough to know that he can't keep bumping, grinding, and gyrating forever. He works odd jobs and hopes to one day design his own line of custom furniture. He befriends Adam (Pettyfer), literally, the new "Kid" at Xquisite. He is also attracted to Adam's sister (Cody Horn). Worried about how Adam will handle the stripper lifestyle, she asks Mike to take care of him. Mike promises to do so, but that doesn't turn out too well.Adam becomes a stripping sensation faster than Natalie Wood in "Gypsy" (1962). Adam, it turns out, is a natural born stripper; despite the fact that Dallas initially tells him, "You take your clothes off like a 12 year old n a locker room." Adam quickly dives into easy money, booze, drugs, and cheap sex; just as Mike grows sick of the lifestyle. In the end, Mike has had enough and (drug-addicted) Adam is all set to take his place as #1 Stud at Xquisite. So, does "Magic Mike" aim to be the "A Star Is Born" of male stripper movies? Such a question will likely never bother the average viewer, who will likely view "Magic Mike" as agreeable cinema eye candy and nothing more. "Magic Mike" may not know where it is going (maybe it has nowhere to go?); but I still appreciated the fact that Soderbergh's and Tatum's interest in the characters is obviously more than just skin deep.

Great movie