“Magic Mike,” the stimulating male-stripper movie, is all goose-bump and grind. When the “cock-rocking kings” — Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, out actor Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello — take the stage and take off their clothes to “It’s Raining Men,” viewers excited by all the buff bodies on display may scream like the female customers in the film. Steven Soderbergh’s enjoyable comedy-drama serves up sexy male flesh and bare-ass actors along with a memorable shot of a penis pump that earns the film its “hard” [ahem] R rating.
The thong-thin plot has Tatum — whose real-life story inspired this film — playing the title character, a Tampa roofer who strips for cash he needs to open a handcrafted furniture business. When Mike befriends the broke 19-year-old Adam (Pettyfer) on a roofing job, he soon enlists Adam’s assistance at Xquisite, a male strip club. In a twist borrowed from the old showbiz warhorse “42nd Street,” when a dancer can’t take the stage, Adam gets a chance to strut his stuff. He takes off his clothes and comes back a star. Yet he is a lost young man. He asks Mike to be his best friend. Mike agrees, and assures Adam’s no-nonsense sister Brooke (Cody Horn) that he will take care of her kid brother.
Mike’s story, however, is the film’s central focus. Trying to open his own business, he is frustrated that he cannot get a loan from a female bank officer — a woman who would be throwing money at him if she were in the audience for one of his shows. Mike also has relationship troubles. He has no-strings-attached sex with Joanna (Olivia Munn), a bisexual student, but gets discouraged that he can’t have emotional intimacy. Mike also pines for Brooke, who mostly disapproves of him.
Brooke’s banter with Mike forms the backbone of the film and gives “Magic Mike” its emotional core. (It also provides a pricelessly funny line when Joanna tries to coerce Brooke to have sex.) But the rest of the film lacks real momentum. “Magic Mike” has a traditional three-act structure that, when stripped to its barest elements, consists of exposition (in this case, exhibition), “rising action” (sex, drugs and financial strains that derail Mike’s career plans) and climax (Mike developing a true sense of who he is). While the story is hardly novel, it is the film’s unique setting and sense of humor that makes this romp so entertaining.
“Magic Mike” features several hilarious moments, such as Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), the owner of Xquisite, teaching Adam how to dance like a pro. ”Fuck that mirror like you mean it!” he instructs Adam in one of the most quotable lines. The outrageous stage routines are also riotous. Watching a “Tarzan” scenario play out on stage is almost as funny as a bit where “Big Dick Richie” (Manganiello) hurts his back giving a fireman’s carry to a plus-size patron.
Oddly, the film is even better when it gets serious. When Adam tells Mike how grateful he is that he got into stripping — he enjoys the money, drugs and women that come with his new “career” — he is incredibly sincere. It reveals more about his character than any scene of him naked.
Likewise, an interesting sequence in which Adam, on ecstasy, is encouraged to grope the breasts of fellow stripper Ken’s (Bomer) wife at a party leads to both men telling the other “I love you.” Soderbergh teasingly cuts away before the scene devolves further, but the bond between these men is interesting and palpable.
Alas, “Magic Mike” keeps supporting characters such as Ken and Big Dick Richie mostly in the background. This will disappoint fans hoping to see more of Bomer and Manganiello, but the film is designed to showcase Tatum. The beefy actor will dazzle viewers when he is on the dance floor or when he turns up undressed or, in one scene, dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Tatum exudes charisma: He is endearing while trying to impress Brooke and sympathetic as his fortunes reverse.
In support, McConaughey is suitably slick and sleazy as the lizardly Dallas, generating the most laughs with his over-the-top performances on stage. In contrast, Pettyfer is appropriately stiff in his ingénue role. The actor makes Adam likable but never truly desirable — which is exactly why Pettyfer’s performance works.
Soderbergh’s film teases and seduces, and it gets viewers’ money by taking off its clothes. Those who give themselves over to the dubious pleasures of “Magic Mike” won’t mind a bit.