‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ Review: Cinema's Stripper Icon Delivers a Fun Albeit Offbeat Farewell
Magic Mike’s Last Dance
R: Sexual material and language
Runtime: 1 Hour and 52 Minutes
Production Companies: Nick Wechsler Productions, Free Association
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Reid Carolin
Cast: Channing Tatum, Salma Hayek Pinault, Ayub Khan Din, Jemelia George, Juliette Motamed, Vicki Pepperdine, Gavin Spokes, Caitlin Gerard
Release Date: February 10, 2023
In Theaters Only
Over a decade ago, director Steven Soderbergh, writer Reid Carolin, and actor Channing Tatum blessed the world with Mike Lane (aka “Magic Mike”), the male stripper/entertainer with the moves of an angel and a heart of gold. In each franchise entry, Mike and his stripper boy crew entertain the girls and gays with their sweet souls and sexy moves. Funny enough, each Magic Mike film concluded with the titular character hanging up his stripper coat to pursue other endeavors. It's 2023, and this “retired” dancer is back for a third round. Who thought we'd get a Magic Mike trilogy?! Dynamic trio Soderbergh, Carolin, and Tatum will get you off (with a good time).
Years after the events of XXL, Mike Lane’s (Channing Tatum) furniture biz went kaput, and now he’s on that freelance grind. Working as a bartender at an event, he meets socialite Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault), who’s feeling down about her failed marriage with her wealthy husband. A guest informs her of the services Mike provided at his previous occupation. She hires him for a lap dance to lift her broken spirits. Though initially hesitant and adamant about leaving the strip life behind, Mike puts that magic on Mendoza. The dance ends up being so damn sexy Mendoza takes Mike to London with a job offer in tow. Upon arriving at performance space The Rattigan, which Mendoza owns thanks to her wealthy husband, she makes him the director of a new live show that features male strippers. Though Mike lacks the experience, Mendoza, her privy butler Victor (Ayub Khan-Din), and Mendoza’s daughter Zadie (Jemelia George) cooperate to pull off a spectacular show that’ll take the Brits by storm.
Not only is the Magic Mike franchise Channing Tatum’s baby (based on his experience as a male entertainer), but it’s also his cinematic legacy. Those movies thrived off Tatum’s charisma, blending upbeat optimism, confidence, wisdom, and angelic physicality that is entertaining and swoon-worthy. A decade later and he still has the rhythm for his Last Dance. Mike/Tatum might be older now, but his gracefulness remains. In the opening lap dance sequence, Mike put the moves on Mendoza like the rent was due, choreographing her lavish Miami mansion while discussing rates before he even put on a song. It’s one of the franchise’s sexiest set pieces. Nothing will top Joe Manganiello’s convenience store scene in XXL, but Soderbergh dug deep into my intrusive thoughts and discovered I had a thing for Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault.
Last Dance’s setup is so reminiscent of Ted Lasso’s: a scorned socialite ex-wife of the owner of a British space hires the least-equipped person to build a team from the ground up, falling for that person along the way. Maxandra and Mike’s romance is similar to Rebecca and Ted’s, but it works. Salma Hayek Pinault is ferociously funny as Max. Her comedic timing is the best it’s ever been. She keeps Mike on his toes with her unpredictable passion and relatable anxiousness.
There’s an electric chemistry between Hayek Pinault and Tatum despite their characters’ fast-paced romance. Writer Reid Carolin—who penned all three Magic Mike films—often falls short when giving Mike a budding romantic interest. From Cady Horn drinking that haterade in the first flick to Amber Heard (who wasn’t much of a love interest, to begin with) in XXL, they pale in comparison to the passion Mike and Maxandra share. Maxandra refreshingly challenges Mike by being two steps ahead of him, prioritizing his ambitions and potential that none of his other romantic partners saw.
Soderbergh’s direction improved between the first MM entry and Last Dance. He updates the voyeuristic style that left much to be desired, taking beats from Gregory Jacobs’ XXL and putting viewers in the passenger seat for the performance sequences. Soderbergh delivers a Greatest Hits of his styles, from inviting smooth camera oners during rehearsal scenes to an Oceans-style heist sequence ending in an elaborate bus set piece. It blends his best attributes as a filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor. As an antithesis to the original film’s negative depiction of stripping, which highlighted its capitalistic scumminess, Last Dance celebrates the glee behind female desires. He frames male stripping as a form of entertainment and as a performance art. Unfortunately, it's not as effective as XXL.
If the first two entries were considered gender-fluid due to their structureless freedom in storytelling, this trilogy finale is the most binary Magic Mike has ever been. Last Dance departs from the predecessors' styles and abides by the constructs of the three-act structure, and you feel every beat coming from a mile away. It plays to the archetype of a “we gotta put on a show” story akin to your Muppets or Blues Brothers movies. While it’s welcoming for the series to experiment with various story styles, that newness is smothered in overwhelming familiarity and commercialism. The film’s climax is a cinematic advertisement for the Magic Mike live show currently running in London. The nuance of the predecessors has been stripped away.
This might come off as a nitpick, but Zadie’s narration forcefully plays as a framing device, disrupting the sanctity of the scene. Also, the ADR is very echoey, so the non-diegetic aspects are startling compared to the diegetic music moments on screen.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance is a familiar and commercialized story stripped of the series’ best strengths, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad cinematic experience. Powered by the performances of Tatum and Hayek Pinault, along with some “worth the price of admission” set pieces that leave you in shambles, Mike’s last rodeo is still worth a watch.
