PLOT: After his construction company shuts down, a down and out Mike (Channing Tatum) accepts an offer from a wealthy divorcee (Salma Hayek) to fly to London and mount a spectacular stage show.
REVIEW: Magic Mike’s Last Dance is the Staying Alive to the original’s Saturday Night Fever. It’s wholly unnecessary and loses all of the grit, edge and charm that made the original (and its fun sequel) such a sensation. Director Steven Soderbergh has made a tame third entry in the franchise that borders on prudish. We’re supposed to think we’re watching something risqué and naughty, but this is a movie that avoids strip clubs altogether and climaxes in a finale that seems cribbed from the Magic Mike Live stage show and has no nudity whatsoever, with none of the dancers even daring to wear g-strings. All of the guys stay in their boxers, and it feels like a movie that’s not going to please the audience that made the first two movies such big hits. Outside of an early lap dance (which is tame), the film is gentle, so much so that if it weren’t for a few f-bombs, it would be an easy PG-13. One can tell this was made for HBO Max, as it really doesn’t merit the theatrical release it’s being given (notably, the film is getting a small roll-out for a wide release, going out under 2000 screens).
In many ways, this movie reminded me of The Hangover – Part III in how much it resists giving the audience what they’ve come to expect from the franchise. While that movie dumped the laughs, Magic Mike’s Last Dance drops the sex appeal. Sure, Channing Tatum shows off his abs, but as a lot of other critics have already pointed out, the movie is like a gender-flipped Pretty Woman more than a Magic Mike movie. In it, he’s whisked off his feet to London to give Salma Hayek’s divorcee her mojo back. His only purpose in the film is to make her dreams come true, with next to no arc of his own. I suppose this is meant to critique how, in older rom-coms, the female character often filled this thinly-written role, but even so, that doesn’t make the movie boundary-pushing or entertaining. If anything, it’s as dull as the worst rom-com, which is a shocking waste of the two leads’ talents.
The film starts with a decent enough hook, with Mike pushing forty and being out of work due to the pandemic. Yet, his drive and ambition are dropped as soon as he hooks up with Hayek’s (billed here as Salma Hayek Pinault) Maxandra, whose dreams in life are reawakened after spending a sexy night with Mike. We’re supposed to invest in their relationship despite them not really having a ton of chemistry. So much time is devoted to establishing, over and over, that Maxandra is the one with agency (and power), that Mike becomes nothing more than a vehicle for wish fulfillment.
Again, this is nothing new, as women have been filling that role for years, but you’d think a Steven Soderbergh movie would push the envelope a little more. It feels like a something that was made to cater to a post #MeToo mentality, but it also feels like a movie that will fall flat for the people that flocked to the other two films. If you’re looking for a raunchy good time, this ain’t it. If anything, it proves how anxious Hollywood has gotten about showing anything sexual on the big screen. Perhaps now wasn’t the time for a Magic Mike movie if it was going to be done in such a careful, chaste way. There’s no joy in this movie whatsoever, with no moments even coming close to replicating some of the best bits from the other films, such as Joe Manganiello’s iconic supermarket striptease to “I Want It That Way” from Magic Mike XXL.
All that said, there are elements of Magic Mike’s Last Dance that work. Tatum’s never better than he is as Mike, and he’s as likeable as ever. Soderbergh also serves as the movie’s DP under his usual Peter Andrews pseudonym and pulls off some interesting shots. Ayub Khan Din also has a plum role as Maxandra’s butler, Victor, who brings a world-weariness the proceedings and is the most interesting character in the movie. The film really suffers from the loss of Magic Mike’s old squad, with Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash and Adam Rodriguez popping up in brief cameos via a zoom chat. They shouldn’t have done another Magic Mike movie without them.
If the title is to be believed and this really is Magic Mike’s Last Dance, it’s a shame as this once vibrant, sexy franchise is going out with a whimper rather than a bang. It’s a disappointing end to a series that, up to now, was refreshingly sexy and had energy and charm to burn. This is a sad, watered-down finale, and hopefully, if Mike returns one day, it’ll be in a movie that’s a lot edgier and more entertaining than this one.