[Rating: Minor Rock Fist Down]
In theaters now.
Whether you agree or not, critics and movie fans alike have enjoyed the Magic Mike franchise so far. There was enough “magic” for them to return back to the male stripping world one more time for Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
So eleven years after initially first meeting him, we find former dancer Mike (Channing Tatum) hurting financially from a business deal gone bad. Approached and propositioned by a rich client (Salma Hayek Pinault), he takes off to London and gets involved in a theater production, looking to turn heads with one great show. Is this storyline enough for audiences to venture one more time into the gyrating world of Magic Mike?
Sometimes people go back to the well one too many times. This is the case in this third installment. There was something unique in the first two that is missing here. That’s the brotherhood among the Kings of Tampa. With the exception of a Zoom call, the guys are not in this one. In turn, there’s no heart in this one. There are attempts at conflict, drama, and romance but they mostly fall short. Director Stephen Soderbergh misses on all counts with the crew he has assembled for this one.
The main culprit here is the writing. The screenplay is just terribly thin. It makes you wonder if anyone in Mike’s situation would actually be desperate enough to go to another country without explanation, for any amount of money, and take on a responsibility that they’ve never had in their life in order to make a rich woman happy. There are so many things here that just don’t work. There is a smart and sassy child (Jemelia George) who seems to be smarter than the majority of the cast. For some reason, a voice-over starts abruptly in the middle of the movie. They try to play it out like a fairytale romance, especially as Mike is lured back to the stage for one last dance. There are things that are meant to be serious that will have audiences outright laughing at the ridiculousness.
Production-wise, there are a few standouts. There’s one moment where it looks so much like a Soderbergh shot that I swore he was behind the camera. If you enjoyed the dancing in the first two movies, the same choreographers are on board for this one. However, that still doesn’t save Magic Mike’s Last Dance from everything else that doesn’t work. And I haven’t mentioned the dance routines.
While Tatum and Hayek do their best to show themselves as a believable couple, you just can’t get past the writing. The plot is thin and the attempt to make a stance for female desire and empowerment has tunnel vision.
While we’ve been complaining lately about the runtime of movies, this happily comes in that under two hours. And it couldn’t end soon enough for me. One dance too many.
KB is a native New Yorker/Midwest transplant who’s into tech, sports, and the arts, especially film and music. He still aspires to be a DJ in his other life. You can frequently catch him watching Hitchcock classics, film noir, and anything Star Wars.
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