Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023)

[Eric Prime]

Discuss

[filmlover]

Mildly entertaining, but definitely the weakest of the three movies in this unlikely trilogy. Steven Soderbergh (returning to the director's chair after handing over those duties to someone else on the previous one) doesn't quite stick the landing, as the plot tends to lean too much into melodrama that simply serves to provide conflict. I also could NOT with the decision to have this told from the perspective of the adopted daughter, which begs the question of whether it was Soderbergh, the studio, or someone else's idea to include such an unnecessary framing device. And while Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault are arguably among the most beautiful people in the world, I couldn't feel a whole lot of chemistry between them, even though their performances are solid otherwise.

 

I guess I'll give the Magic Mike franchise credit for overcoming its initial marketing campaign of frivolous girls night out escapism to become the seemingly rare film series (at least by today's standards) where each movie has its own unique identity and no one could claim that the sequels are rehashes of the original. The first movie was a surprisingly good effort that took us inside the world of male stripping while delivering a compelling character drama. XXL was less an actual movie than a series of erotic dance sequences loosely connected by moments of character development, but still mostly got by on the energy of those dance scenes and the camaraderie between Tatum and his fellow stripper pals. In fact, the latter element has been one of the chief strengths of these movies and its absence here is glaring, as Mike's friends have been replaced by a completely anonymous group of dancers with zero personalities (it also must be said that it feels odd for a series known as "The One About Male Strippers" to almost completely do away with that element in favor of an approach similar to the other, earlier dance franchise Tatum is famous for in what is being touted as the grand finale). It's telling that the most delightful scene in the whole movie happens to occur when Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, etc., drop in for a cameo via a Zoom call.

 

Ultimately, this coda feels like it was stripped of its own sensuality (the byproduct of #MeToo's impact on cinema, I suppose) and was designed to be watched as something in the background on streaming (which was, ironically enough, its original destination). The dancing is spectacular, Soderbergh ensures it remains a well-made affair at all times, and it never becomes particularly painful to watch. But this series has clearly run its course and needs to dance off into the sunset for good this time.

 

C+

[Jonwo]

I did think it was odd that the Zoom call was such bad quality considering Max could afford ultra high speed broadband. 

 

Have to say Salma Hayek may speak English as a second language but she's fluent in swearing, calling her butler a nosey fuck was brilliantly delivered. 

 

I think Sodenbergh should direct a musical, his work on Magic Mike shows he's capable of directing one. 

[Webslinger]

In returning to a character and premise they had success with over a decade ago, Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum deliver an uneven but ultimately pleasing sequel in Magic Mike’s Last Dance. Like the 2015 sequel Magic Mike XXL (which Soderbergh shot as DP and edited but did not direct), Last Dance swerves from the style and focus of its predecessors and takes a different narrative tack. This time, the stripping has been replaced with a focus on onstage dancing, albeit with XXL’s pointed focus on centering a (straight) female audience’s pleasure remaining intact. The loose nature of the story and characterization become a little dry and tiring over the course of a running time that is too long to sustain such an approach, but once it gets to the show Mike is recruited to direct, it delivers the goods with high-energy, well-choreographed numbers that provide better payoff for the characters than anything else in the script’s dialogue. Viewers expecting something rowdier will once again be left disappointed, but the technical skill of the performers onscreen is so impressive that they have little trouble carrying the film any time Soderbergh turns the camera on them. Once again, Channing Tatum settles nicely into the title role with a performance that succeeds in selling Mike as an ambitious but easygoing guy with hidden depths; again, his subtlety serves him well in character moments, and his dance moves are still impressive. Salma Hayek is fine as Mike’s new romantic interest, though their romance feels forced and underdeveloped (and perhaps just unnecessary altogether? I feel like nothing would be lost if they were just mostly platonic business partners.). Though it is the least of the trilogy and a clear sign that it’s probably best to stop here, Magic Mike’s Last Dance is a suitably entertaining postscript to what Soderbergh and Tatum started in 2012.

 

B-