When I saw trailers for Magic
Mike in early 2012 I thought it looked like the film I was least likely to
see, ever. Despite excelling in 21 Jump Street,
Channing Tatum was still one of my least favourite actors and I was yet to see
Matthew McConaughey’s fantastic turn in Killer Joe so he was still just Mahogany McConaughey to me. Added to that
inauspicious line up was Alex Pettyfer who I had only ever seen in Beastly which happens to be one of my
least favourite films of all time. So the cast was awful, what about the plot?
Male Strippers. Next. So all of that plus fucking Rihanna warbling over the the trailer made Magic Mike
a film I felt I had to avoid. But then I started reading snippets of reviews
and comments from people who weren’t the typical wet lipped Tatum fans and
wondered if it was actually worth checking out.
‘Magic’ Mike
Lane (Tatum) has dreams of designing and selling
custom made furniture but for now earns a living in a number of ways which
include roofing and more lucratively, stripping. On a roofing job he meets Adam
(Pettyfer) who Mike introduces to the world of male stripping. Adam, known as
‘the kid’ quickly picks up the trade and brings in much needed money which soon
goes to his head. Meanwhile Mike enters into a flirtatious friendship with
Adam’s straight laced sister Brooke (Cody Horn) while club owner Dallas
(McConaughey) dreams of ruling over an empire of strip clubs and all the women
and money that comes with it.