{"id":57192,"date":"2023-02-13T08:14:05","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T13:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=57192"},"modified":"2023-02-13T08:14:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T13:14:12","slug":"movie-review-magic-mikes-last-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/02\/movie-review-magic-mikes-last-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Magic Mike’s Last Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            I had never seen a \u201cMagic Mike\u201d movie before \u201cMagic Mike\u2019s Last Dance.\u201d The franchise\u2019s first two installments both missed out on the domestic box office crown in their respective opening weekends in 2012 and 2015, thus not warranting reviews from me. Ironically, \u201cLast Dance\u201d made less money in its opening weekend then either of its predecessors, but those opened in the more blockbuster-y summer season instead of the void that is Super Bowl weekend. If the first two entries in this series are anything like the third, then not only am I glad I missed them, but I have to wonder why this property was even allowed to have three movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The film opens with former exotic dancer Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) bartending in Florida, his relationships and business ventures all having fizzled out since the second movie. Lonely philanthropist Maxandra \u201cMax\u201d Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault) hears that Mike can provide certain services, and he agrees to give her a lapdance that turns into much more. Taken by his talent and charm, Max invites Mike to London to become the director of a one-night-only strip show at a theater she owns. Again, he reluctantly agrees, though the relationship has to be strictly professional from that point forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The rest of the movie is mostly what you\u2019d expect from the \u201cLet\u2019s Put on a Show\u201d genre. Mike balks at the new setting at first, but he quickly adapts. He doesn\u2019t get along with Max\u2019s daughter (Jemalia George) or butler (Ayub Khan Din) at first, but of course they come to like him. There\u2019s a montage of auditioning dancers and some antics with a stuffy city official (Vicki Pepperdine). It looks like the show will be shut down, but they pull out all the stops and put it on anyway because they just love performing so much. The Mike\/Max relationship deepens, by which I mean there is one, apparently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Proponents of this film say that the best thing about it is the chemistry between the two leads. I was not picking up on any such movie-saving chemistry. Even with a grand gesture toward the end of the film, I was having a hard time buying that either Mike or Max has commitment to the other in their future. Maybe this belief in their chemistry comes from the lap dance sequence early in the film. They do nail that scene, though it seems to involve a lot of physical exertion from Max. I thought lap dances were supposed to be relaxing for the recipient?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The film is surprisingly restrained on the sexuality front. I\u2019d say that for about 80% of the dances in this movie, the dancers wear pants \u2013 that\u2019s full-legged pants. Mike and a female partner share a dance sequence toward the end of the movie for a supposedly-ravenous, mostly-female audience, and she\u2019s way more scantily-clad than he is. The movie\u2019s advertising didn\u2019t exactly promise heaps of male nudity, but it was certainly implied. I\u2019d bet that this movie could clean up its language, make no cuts visually, and get a PG-13 rating. Were the other \u201cMagic Mike\u201d movies this tame?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cMagic Mike\u2019s Last Dance\u201d isn\u2019t particularly funny, romantic, or interesting, nor does it work as a visual spectacle outside of some acrobatic feats that viewers of any sexuality will likely find more impressive than tantalizing. I know it wants to be a date movie for Valentine\u2019s Day, but it has to contend with yet another rerelease of \u201cTitanic.\u201d That movie may as well be Kate Winslet floating on a suspiciously-roomy door, because this movie is dead in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMagic Mike\u2019s Last Dance\u201d is rated R for sexual material and language. Its running time is 112 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver             I had never seen a \u201cMagic Mike\u201d movie before \u201cMagic Mike\u2019s Last Dance.\u201d The franchise\u2019s first two installments both missed out on the domestic box office… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":57193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2152],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57195,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57192\/revisions\/57195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}