Magic Mike: It's Cheeky

Dir: Steven Soderbergh


Channing Tatum is Magic Mike, star of a male dance revue in Tampa, Florida. Him and his gang of merry-men aquire Adam (Alex Pettyfer) at a local construction site and before long he's yanking his socks off in front of crowds of adoring ladies. Club owner Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) is a man who sweats swagger. He looks sticky to the touch and has dreams to take the show to Miami. Things take a turn for the worst when Adam turns his hand at drug-dealing and turns out to be bloody awful at it.

Now I turned up for this little movie-going experience on its opening night – a Wednesday. The girls, gays and the Orange Wednesday crowd were out in force and the queue was literally out the door. Once the horny and cheap were assembled, 110 minutes of whooping, gasping and rubbing our parts on our chairs (presumably) followed. It's not for the prudes. The dancing is absolutely amazing and you see some stuff. No, nothing that dangles, but plenty of trunk junk.

Now in this stripper movie, there isn't a bitchy one, a jealous one and no bitter old hag for a ringleader. Because it's boy strippers this time: a band of friends with oodles of personality and charm. They - like the film - are laid back, charming and have a little heart. I'm not going to criticise how the ladies came off because Olivia Munn (as Joanna – Mike's regular booty call) is really good, genuinely sexy and loves herself some naked man-strippers. But she also gets married off at the end. The main lady-lead Cody Horn (Brooke – Adam's protective big sister) has spent too much time at the Kristen Stewart school of acting. She gets to be the spokesperson for 'all people who think stripping is not the greatest idea.' But nevertheless it's so nice to have a little role reversal and see women literally losing control of themselves in the face of some beefy man-flesh.

I'll have to stop here because honestly I'm struggling to remember anything with clarity apart from the exact contour of Channing Tatum's lower abs.