Magic Mike's Last Dance review

MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE: 

CHANNING TATUM’S STILL GOT THE MOVES, BUT THE FILM ITSELF STRUGGLES TO TAKE CENTER STAGE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek in Magic Mike’s Last Dance

 

            Channing Tatum (Jump Street, White House Down, The Lost City) returns as the titular retired male stripper in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the third and final installment of the Magic Mike trilogy dating back to 2012 and the second to be directed by Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Side Effects, Logan Lucky). I was pleasantly surprised by the first Magic Mike when I saw it back in 2012 as it wasn’t really a movie I was seeking out to go see, but people kept telling me how good it actually is and yeah, they weren’t wrong. 

            The dance sequences are a lot of fun and full of energy, the cast has a lot of charisma, Tatum and Alex Pettyfer have very likable chemistry together, and I found myself being invested in the characters and their dilemmas. Apparently, a lot of people agreed as it was a critical and commercial hit and spawned a sequel in 2015 known as Magic Mike XXL. 

The sequel wasn’t quite on par with its predecessor, but it still has plenty of entertainment value and is a little more character-based than the first film with Mike’s backup dancers getting some time to shine. Again, a movie I wasn’t expecting much out of, and I ended up having a good time with it. 

Now, we come to the third and final chapter of the Magic Mike story released over ten years since the first film and eight years since XXL. Like its predecessors, I didn’t have any expectations going into it, but I was more optimistic this time around because Magic Mike XXL turned out to be a pretty solid sequel so maybe Tatum and Soderbergh can still work their “Magic” on the third film…not exactly! 

Magic Mike’s Last Dance isn’t terrible, and it does have some enjoyable moments, but it really pales in comparison with the first two installments. It’s an example where the cast/dancers’ efforts are commendable, but the novelty of the films has worn thin. 

The film follows Mike Lane (Tatum) who has left the stripper life behind and is now working as a bartender in Florida. But when he meets a wealthy socialite named Maxandra (Salma Hayek-Frida, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Puss in Boots 1 and 2), the two of them travel to London to put on a spectacle of a show. 

With everything on the line and a new roster of hot dancers he’ll need to whip into shame, Mike makes the unusual transition from former stripper to live theater director as he puts together the greatest (and spiciest) show on Earth. 

The film also stars Ayub Khan Din (East Is East, Coronation Street, Ackley Bridge) as Victor, Vicki Pepperdine (My Cousin Rachel, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Johnny English Strikes Again) as Edna Eaglebauer, Alan Cox (Young Sherlock Holmes, August, The Dictator) as Roger, and Caitlin Gerard (The Social Network, Insidious: The Last Key) reprising her role from the first film as Kim. 

Overall, Magic Mike’s Last Dance has its moments and Channing Tatum is once again at the top of his game, but it’s a rather underwhelming “Last Dance” that lacks a lot of the “Magic” and fun of its predecessors. First I’ll address some positives, the acting is great especially from Tatum and Hayek who have very strong chemistry together and work off each other quite well, they pretty much carried the whole movie for me. 

There are a handful of side characters like Maxandra’s daughter who aspires to be a novelist, her disapproving and practically antagonistic ex-husband, and her butler who doesn’t take much of a liking to Mike and while they aren’t nearly as memorable as Mike’s posse from the earlier films, they’re enjoyable enough and serve their own purposes. No one is really bad in this movie; everyone is putting their all into it even if the screenplay doesn’t do them many favors.  

Like its predecessors, the dance sequences are very well-choreographed and bursting with energy and passion. They aren’t quite as sizzling compared to the first two as the ones here take more of a live theater performance approach instead of the grungy strip club atmosphere of the previous films, but they do a great job showcasing the talents in front of the camera with sprinkles of Magic Mike’s umm…magic in there for good measure. 

Sadly, while the film offers plenty of masculine eye-candy and a stellar cast clearly giving their all, it doesn’t have a very interesting or compelling narrative in-between. I’m not saying the plots for the first two movies are masterpieces, but they were at least paced well, you got to know the characters, and understood the agenda or goal which made their resolutions a lot more satisfying. 

This one relies heavily on tons of tired “Putting on a big show” movie clichés that we’ve seen a hundred times before even right down to the snooty bad guy trying to shut the production down and it’s just not that interesting or exciting. Ironically, for a movie called Magic Mike there is a lot of business talk regarding politics of the theater industry and discussions about divorce from Salma Hayek’s character and the ex-husband in here and while I must reiterate that the dance choreography and sequences are the best parts of the movie, they’re either too short, in the background, or not focused on as much…isn’t that one of the reasons people go to these movies? 

I wouldn’t have minded this idea of Magic Mike being tasked to direct a theater production if the show was a lot crazier and reminiscent of the other movies. Like if he was directing a male version of Showgirls or something along the lines of Satan’s Alley from Staying Alive, this could have been just as fun as the first two, but this show is surprisingly pretty tame compared to the overblown spectacles from the earlier films. 

If you’re a fan of the Magic Mike franchise and want to see how it ends then you might find something to enjoy in Magic Mike’s Last Dance. But for something that started off with so much potential and kinetic energy, Mike deserves better.