MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE

(director/writer: Steven Soderbergh; screenwriter: Reid Carolin; cinematographer: Peter Andrews; editor: Mary Ann Bernard; music: Season Kent; cast: Channing Tatum (“Magic” Mike Lane), Gavin Spokes (Matthew), Salma Hayek (Maxandra Mendoza), Ayub Khan-Din (Victor), Caitljn Gerard (Kim), Jemelia George (Zadie Rattigan), Juliette Motamed (Hannah), Christie-Leigh Emby (Theater Audience Member), Nancy Carroll (Phoebe), Vicki Pepperdine (Edna Eaglebauer); Runtime: 112; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Nick Wechsler/Gregory Jacobs/Peter Liernan/Reid Carolin/Channing Tatum; Warner Bros. Pictures; 2023)

“Tiresome, silly and dispirited emotionally.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Steven Soderbergh (“Kimi”/”Let Them All Talk”) directs another Magic Mike film, that began in 2012, about the hunky exotic stripper from Florida played again by Channing Tatum. This one is tiresome, silly and dispirited emotionally.

Nearing his 40th birthday, Magic Mike (Tatum) is an unsuccessful businessman who is now a barman in Miami.

At a charity bash, the socialite hostess Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek) learns from one of the guests, Kim (Caitljn Gerard), that Mike used to be a legendary stripper and gets him to put on a private show for her. The show greatly pleases the about to be divorced lady, who thereby takes him with her to London where she finances a stripper show for him to star in.

While the dance numbers have some fun energy, the story doesn’t, and when the film loses track of the main story to pay attention to the subplot of Hannah (Juliette Motamed), the star of the stage show, dancing it up with Mike, the film drifts off course and never gets its direction back.

The pointless and cynical film has lost its prior magic and seems merely to be a flat love story fizzed-up with music-video numbers to pad the slight production.

This is the worse film I’ve seen from the talented director–despite another good performance from Tatum. 

REVIEWED ON 2/15/2023  GRADE: C-