Magic Mike Post-Release

FINALLY!

 

And yeah surprisingly I have been hearing more good things then bad so I might have to see this one. 

I'm strapped for time so I don't know if I'll get to see this. A lady friend of mine is in love with Tatum and I want to take her just so she'll have the added bonus of seeing his ass cheeks in a good movie.

 

Links within a week, max.   Don't let me down, internet!   

 

And a slight cock shot!

 

 

Anyways... I really enjoyed this movie a lot. Tatum continues to impress me (though I don't care to see his romance movies). I really hope that he continues to work with talented directors and tries to grow as an actor. Mcanaugheygheheheyehey was fantastic and was a blast to watch. He deserves a lot praise here. The girl who played the sister was really great as well. She played shy and withdrawn really well. It felt natural.

 

I read on Tatums twitter that he said he wouldn't mind making a sequel because he such a great time making the movie. I think he shouldn't. I'm sure he wasn't being serious though... I hope he wasn't.

 

Also, it was funny seeing former WWE great Kevin Nash lazily dance through some of those sequences. Good on him for taking this kind of role.

 

One downside to the movie is that it made me feel horrible about how I look! I'M OBESE!!

I've seen Tatum's tot, nothing slight about it, even in fractions. I wouldn't call myself a convert yet, but the more he stays out of stupid shit, the more I'll likely appreciate him.

I'm contractually obligated to watch all Soderbergh movies so it's only a matter of time I guess. And I don't think I have a problem with Tatum as long as he's in the hands of directors that know how to use him. I never expect him to just go nuts and elevate a part but his strengths can be used succesfully. 

 

Why so pessimistic? It's boobs. The links are already out. But I'm not doing your homework for you.

The movie is well worth seeing.  A lot of fun.

 

Sold.

Soderbergh has become such a conundrum of a director; like, his efficiency in delivering a tight package of a movie gets in the way of infusing it with anything too challenging, interesting or fresh. Magic Mike is a lot of fun, but only in the sense that it's an incredibly predictable crowd pleaser, beholden to its formula as much as Haywire and Contagion were. I liked all of these movies to various degrees, don't get me wrong, but there's something interesting about how Soderbergh's economic habits as a director combined with his recent characters' frustration with how commerce compromises their individuality and how that leads them  to want to quit their business and lead a better life (dating back to The Girlfriend Experience, at least)  that seems telling about his own desire to want to retire from film making. 

 

The cast was good. The script was weak at times, but the cinematography was typically inventive and the actors made the most of the material. 

It's funny, Soderbergh's essentially evolved into the James Spader character in "Sex Lies And Videotape." He gets off on such ridiculous surfaces instead of people, and it's fascinating every time.

 

I had such a great time with this. It's visually quite dark, no? Or was that just my projectionist? I really kinda had a hard time seeing things, though it created kind of a moody undertone that felt almost oppressive, which is weirder when you see everyone having such a good time.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, Tarzan, the smelliest male stripper in the world!

I love this movie. Soderbergh has a confidence that lets him take on what is really kind of a standard sub-culture introduction story, and spin it into something continuously interesting. If you look at the film as essentially about all the events that lead up to a character making one key decision -- which I completely believe is Soderbergh's intent -- then it reveals itself as a very subtly focused flick. I love that he can just churn out a tight little character piece that is also an energetic, crowd-pleasing flick that features camerawork and filmmaking you'd NEVER see in a similar studio cash-in. I mean, this is essentially Soderbergh working in the Step Up 3D sphere, and he does great little shit in it.

 

Contagion is more of a completely rounded endeavor that makes me love him, but Soderbergh is also one of my favorite directors for films like Haywire and The Informant and now this, which work almost as theatrical exercises in technique and precision. I don't see how one would miss the bravery in making a film like this that will hinge itself around such a small moment that passes without much fanfare, or that is willing to let its hero stammer and fail to express himself at a key emotional moment (without feeling condescending towards him), and that tries out all these filmmaking tricks in a film that was obviously always going to be seen mostly by bachelorette parties.

Saw this in 3D. The only things that didn't feel like they were coming right at me were Matthew McConaughey's arms.
 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Some people are underating this movie, and others are overlooking it's more interesting qualities. It could have gone hardcore with the guys injecting steroids straight into their dicks, but, if they had to make it more palatable for the masses, I think this was the best way to do it. The scene where Cody watches Tatum strip is excellent. More stylish touches like the blue and red ecstasy trip and Elvis' granddaughter and her piglet were welcome. The juxtaposition of Channing with McConaughey, showing what Tatum could become if he doesn't reevaluate his options, was well done. One problem for me is that while Pettyfer's performance is technically proficient, it lacks charisma. I've heard he's a dick in real life and clashed with Tatum on the set. I think if you can't get along with Channing Tatum, you're probably a dickbag.

 

Yeah!

Wow, did not know Pettyfer was a dick.  But what is he?  21 years old?  Arrogant hubris is easy when you're a kid.  Give him 10 more years in the Hollywood meat grinder...he'll think he got fucked by a train.

Something about Pettyfer has always rubbed me the wrong way, and it's not just his blandly pretty boy looks.  When I was watching Beastly, I couldn't help but think to myself, "I bet this guy is a dick in real life too."

Guy's got a tattoo over his crotch that says "You're welcome." No joke.

He is so PEH-TEEFER.  And TAI-NEEFER.

 

Ouch! And the day was going so well. I dance with the grace of a wildebeast rolling downhill with another wildebeast sewn on its back.

Considering I only attempt dancing when half-blind and stupid from drinking, I wouldn't bet on my performance being very consistent. Ask her if moshing, head-banging and being in a wall of death count as dancing. Because I'm great at these. I can head-bang in tune with Battery, from beginning to end, no breaks.  

That retro red, white, and black Warner Bros intro warmed my heart. This film is simply terrific. The thing that makes me the most proud of Soderbergh as a director this time is how he treats the profession with a solemn respect, where it would have been easy to ridicule the absurdness of the male stripping world. Shot in a very classy style, with the hypnotic slow dolly shots and impeccable framing showing how Soderbergh is essentially treating the gyrations onstage as if they were performing Swan Lake, which is fantastic.

This movie makes me wish that Soderbergh would remake American Gigolo with Ryan Gosling.

Haven't seen this as I'm not a fan of Soderbergh's cold detached style, not to mention his recent fixation with underlit/piss yellow cinematography, but I have to admit that the man knows how to play the Hollywood game. Magic Mike's budget was 7 million and it will gross 100 million by next weekend.

 

This is amazing for a number of reasons. Firstly for the fact that Soderbergh had to FIGHT to get a budget of 7 million. Not because it was too much but because the conventional studio system mentality is that low budget movies don't make money and no one wanted to finance MM. The reason for this fucking stupid rationale is because the studio's are corporations and the idiots who run these studio's are mostly Ivy League assholes who follow the usual way of thinking that studio suits always do. As George A. Romero said in a 1982 issue of Cinefantastique "No one is approaching this business sanely with small but steady profits. They want to rape it all in one go.". Which is why these dipshits don't want to make a 7 million dollar movie because they don't think it will gross 100 million in its opening day and this is why they make fucking trash like John Carter and Battleshit, loaded with action and FX, which fails because it's made-by-committee garbage.

 

I've said this before and I'll say it again; we're basically back to where we were in the 60's with the studio's spending insane amounts of money on spectacle while the real innovation is coming from low budget indies using lightweight technology. Today is no different except that there isn't a single studio that's actively embracing low cost digital technology to produce small movies on limited budgets with maximum creative freedom afforded to the Directors.

 

Magic Mike should be a wake-up call to studio's that you don't need to spend 200 million to make a movie and should be held up as an example of the best of both worlds where a Director got to make the movie he wanted and scored a profit for the studio. It's a niche that Miramax and New Line Cinema used to fill, as Roger Corman did before them, but is now empty as most of the true "indie" studio's are now gone.

 

Given the easy and low cost of digital tech, we should be moving into a new golden era of cinema.   

I love how Soderbergh takes Pettyfer's intrinsic doucheyness and makes it totally work for the character. Brilliant.

 

I also love this movie. Although I have developed an eating disorder because I am a sickening tub of sedentariness.

Loved this. As was said above, if Pettyfer is the douche he's allowed himself to be painted as, then this role was tailor made for him. What an uncaring, dismissive, asshole...way too much of him in me and vice versa. This film absolutely reminded me of Alfie, but with Mike being a far more well-intentioned and less self-centered character. McConaughey, where the fuck has this part of you been all these years? So happy to see him reminding people how much fun and how alive he can be. Tatum is lovely here. The film is a relatively breezy character study, but I love how Tatum plays the subtle unraveling of Mike's self-image when he encounters someone not entranced with it. It's not that anything grossly dramatic had to happen, it only required that the artifice of glamour had to be peeled away for Mike to hit the reset button.

Just came back from seeing this. Had such a great time and second all of JacknifeJohnny's thoughts on it.
 

I was very very surprised by this.  I was not a fan of Tatum, and the whole male stripping thing was just...no.  The only reason I gave it a chance is because Soderbergh was helming it.  And I gotta say it was great.  I'm still not convinced about Tatum, but he was perfect for this.

No love for the little puke-eating piggie?

I don't know if it's Soderberg liking Tatum and tailoring stuff for him or some hidden depths being revealed but, fuck, I'm softening up on him. I can't see anyone else being so good as Mike. I know Mike is pretty much Tatum but there's just this sweetness about him. It makes you go "Being an out of shape undersexed geek I should probably hate your guts but I can't, you big lug." As I said before, I'm among the Soderberg faithful but I liked this way more than I believed I would. And Munn proved that her work in The Newsroom is no accident.   

21 Jump Street helped me appreciate Tatum a little more, but this movie actually surprised me.  Sure, it's not a stretch at times, but it was the stuff between the dancing that sold me.  As usual, Soderbergh's addiction to gels are prominent throughout, and his post-filters are odd - like the sandbar party.  However, he still knows how to film a pretty movie. 

 

It was an oddly paced movie, and if I ever watch it again, I might be able to figure out why.  After one viewing, it just felt so disjointed.  It was a movie of moments and scenes, and often felt like a documentary, rather than a dramatic film.  That's not a bad thing, but made it difficult to become engaged in the characters.  Just too many people and too many things going to really focus.  Had he narrowed the focus a tad, I would have found the movie much more interesting to watch beyond a surface level.  Admittedly, it would have been less "interesting" as it would have been somewhat paint-by-numbers.  My point is, I admired that this movie tried something a little different, but it was too schizophrenic to really grab me.

 

I hate that he is retiring.