'Magic Mike's Last Dance' A Review

Magic Mike's Last Dance is a dramedy, the third installment in the series, that pick's up Mike(Channing Tatum) after he has lost his furniture business because of COVID and is now bartending in Miami. At a charity event Mike's working he meets Max(Salma Hayek) and after some cajoling gives her a dance(the best scene of the movie, probably one of the best of the year). The two connect and Max offers to take Mike to London for an unspecified opportunity(which turns out to be staging a show that looks remarkably like Magic Mike Live).

Tatum, mostly a fault of the script, wavers in and out. The Mike we've come to know over the previous two films is only somewhat present, there is a lot of illogical plotting as well as the relationship with Max that is underdeveloped and overleveraged that result in a lot of struggle with the performance. For the most part Tatum gives us his charm and ease but much of the conflict doesn't make much, if any, sense and he gets lost in it. The same is true of Hayek, she is a star and we love watching her, however she too is bogged down in some of the pairs unnecessary machinations. The two soar in the first extended sequence, everything after fails to reach that peak. The supporting cast is basically limited to Max's daughter(Jemelia George) and butler(Ayub Khan Din) both of whom are great but given little screen time and little character which to develop. The dancers are all unnamed, are clearly professional dancers, have no lines but do have the movie's other stand out(albeit too brief) scene- the bus sequence.

Say this for Soderbergh the movie looks fantastic. It is shot beautifully, costumed perfectly, scored subtly. Soderbergh the craftsman is still at the top of his game. But after the first 15 minutes the script is in absolute free fall. Magic Mike was a thriller, Magic Mike XXL was a joyous roadtrip comedy this is some amalgam of those plus romance, it doesn't work and it fails to recognize(bafflingly) why the previous two films were successful. It mostly jettisons or confuses the themes in the previous installments that made them so refreshing and engaging. The working class perspective is sacrificed for the tribulations of the wealthy(we don't care). The depiction of supportive male friendship is left off for a romance that simply doesn't make sense, doesn't work, and works against the palpable chemistry and talent of it's leads(see the first scene). Not to mention the female empowerment and affirmation of Magic Mike XXL which worked so well because it was mostly subtext, mostly just shown to us, here is made bludgeoning ineffective explicit text. And the last third plays more like a behind-the-scenes of the stage show than an actual movie. It's not terrible just disappointing.

Despite a stand-out opening Magic Mike's Last Dance lands with a thud.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to HBO Max.

Stream It.