The stripper cult film about “Magic Mike” is entering a new round: This time Channing Tatum undresses in the role of the well-trained dancer in London.
Salma Hayek Pinault as Maxandra Mendoza and Channing Tatum as Mike Lane in a scene from the movie Magic Mike’s Last Dance.-/Warner Bros./dpa
Actually, stripper Mike (Channing Tatum) has left his naked days behind. He no longer offers the ladies lap dances – but drinks. Having failed miserably as an entrepreneur, he is working as a bartender at the charity party of the wealthy society lady Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek) when his past catches up with him to a certain extent.
After separating from her husband, Madame Mendoza is in a major life crisis and believes that a hot guy and a bit of bare skin could be exactly what she needs now. She offers Mike a few thousand dollars for his eponymous Last Dance. A whiff of an “Indecent Proposal” – and fate takes its course.
Feminist liberation
Because Maxandra is so fascinated by sexy Mike that she pays him $60,000 to accompany her to London after this night of dancing. What he is supposed to do there, he only finds out on site. Because the angry, hurt and betrayed wife wants to turn the venerable theater of her unfaithful husband’s family into a stripping shop.
She elevated this idea (like the film) to a feminist liberation. Why does a woman have to choose – as is traditional in English classics such as Jane Austen – between the rich bore and the exciting destitute? Why can’t she have it all? Everything in this film means above all: many half-naked men.
Mike is supposed to choreograph the show and has to find his way in English high society. A touch of “Pretty Woman”. The hurdles on the way to the premiere are jumped over by director and Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, who also brought the first “Magic Mike” film to the screen, in such a clichéd way that watching becomes torture at times.
Of course, the family’s aloof, somewhat stubborn butler becomes Mike’s friend (including the obligatory tie-tying). Of course, the previously strict, overly correct official lady becomes completely soft on the spot when the strippers surprise her with a private show on the bus.
There is actually nothing surprising about this film – least of all the love story between the poor stripper and the rich theater owner. Sometimes, all too seldom, a sense of humor flashes through that could have saved the film if only there had been more of it. When the magic microphone floats onto the stage and – like the director – is called “Magic Mike” or when Maxandra’s daughter ponders the tragedy of the middle-aged white man from the off.
Otherwise, these background analyzes of the social significance of dancing seem strangely out of place. If they are supposed to ironically break what is happening on the screen, they do not do so with the necessary clarity. If they should be meant seriously – all the worse.
Overall, the entire film seems as if no one has made a great effort to fill the time when Channing Tatum isn’t lolling about lasciviously somewhere with meaningful content, a good story, funny or even witty dialogues. True to the motto: He undresses – that has to be enough.