Magic Mike (2012)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Mike, an experienced stripper, takes a younger performer called The Kid under his wing and schools him in the arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money.
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What critics compared Magic Mike to
There are shades of the wit and grit of Scorsese's Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street but Scafaria combines it with a refreshingly sincere approach, akin to Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike .
Though there are early moments when the film recalls the vibe (if not the particulars) of Magic Mike, Scafaria uses the opening scenes to provide a “stripper primer” – how it’s all about the tease and what kind of Wall Street workers provide the best marks (always look for the wedding ring).
When Magic Mike arrived in 2012 the stripper was infused with an air of seriousness, courtesy of director Steven Soderbergh, though it reminded audiences of the double standards that plague these narratives (women are regularly nude, men aren’t).
It has its drawbacks; the pacing is not always on point and can lurch forward at some moments or ritard to a standstill, particularly in the second act; but, like Magic Mike before it, Hustlers is a movie that successfully manages to interweave surfaces pleasures with substantive themes.
In this introduction, Lopez gives the audience a jaw-dropping spectacle and full-body rush on par with Channing Tatum’s “Pony” sequence from Magic Mike.
"Hustlers" could, and should, do for her what "Magic Mike" did for Matthew McConaughey.
Made in the lighthearted, unfussy vein of Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s” movies and “Haywire,” this midsummer programmer has less in common with such antecedents as “Striptease” and “Boogie Nights” than with “Lifeguard,” a little-known 1976 gem in which Sam Elliott played an aging beach bum contemplating his future (and looking mighty fine doing it).
Indeed, the story arc and the dilemmas therein are largely just one more modest elaboration of themes already mined in movies like Saturday Night Fever, Showgirls, Lifeguard, American Gigolo and Boogie Nights.
…here will not be a single review of “Magic Mike” that does not reference “Boogie Nights.”
Directed by Steven Soderbergh from a script by Reid Carolin, it deliberately echoes such iconic films as “Shampoo,” “American Gigolo,” and “Boogie Nights,” in which shiny, sexy surfaces hide dark and creepy interior worlds.
Like Don Cheadle's stereo system-loving porn star in "Boogie Nights," Mike isn't his job, but only people he works with can see him as anything else.
But we feel more than a little uneasy when leading actors appear in male versions of these roles, and an essential part of Billy Wilder's Irma la Douce , Paul Schrader's American Gigolo and Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights is to make us warm to and understand Jack Lemmon, Richard Gere and Mark Wahlberg as respectively a pimp, a gigolo and a porn star.
They do their best by bolstering the main storyline with funny scenes that pick on movies like Whiplash and Magic Mike (including the movie’s best scene involving a TV mom of advanced age proving she’s a very, very good sport), but there just aren’t that many other S&M romantic dramas to lump into the mix.
The film is also very of-the-moment with its references to such things as Whiplash, Magic Mike, #BlackLivesMatter, and the last Ronda Rousey title fight.
There’s a Magic Mike scene with some swollen balls, a Whiplash gag that no one who sees this movie will get (and it involves Florence Henderson), and Jane Seymour shows up to spout some tired racist jokes, which just makes me sad.
When it all runs out of steam, the cock-and-ball routines downshift into riffs from Whiplash and Magic Mike, but sadly, these aren’t funny either.
(A leftfield spoof on “Magic Mike” fares less well.)
We know he’s the comic relief from his references to Magic Mike, Gandalf and Harry Potter.
Cole (along with those unfamiliar with the video game) is introduced to former Special Officer Jackson “Jax” Briggs (Mehcad Brooks); Jax’s military partner Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), who runs her operation out of a ramshackle house in Gary, Indiana, and the wisecracking and cynical Kano (Josh Lawson), who makes pop-culture references (calling a shirtless fighter “Magic Mike”) and isn’t nearly as entertaining as he thinks he is.
But the increase in severity doesn’t fix issues with the dialogue, which is frequently generic or just plain silly (even the nonstop humor provided by Kano [Josh Lawson], funny as it may be, doesn’t always line up with the tone and styling of the surrounding elements – such as when he calls a shirtless Liu Kang [Ludi Lin] “Magic Mike”), or the picture’s ability to stand alone as an independent, sensible fantasy yarn.
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Working from a script from Thyberg and co-writer Peter Modestij, Pleasure feels spiritually entwined with Magic Mike in that it’s essentially a workplace drama with an unusual setting: porn sets.
— the long-dormant Channing Tatum, a very welcome sight, flashing more extreme moves than those in “Magic Mike” as an in-game avatar.
If Channing Tatum is the veritable headliner of the film and Alex Pettyfer (2011's " Beastly ") his hunky, blank-slate protégé, then Cody Horn (2010's " Flipped ") is the even-headed standout, a voice of reason that anyone would want to listen to because she's just so irresistible.
When Mike brings 19-year-old Adam (British up-and-comer Alex Pettyfer) into the troupe he meets Adam’s pretty but no nonsense sister Brooke (Cody Horn from Flipped ).
On hand to show Eggsy and Merlin some Southern hospitality is Jeff Bridges as Statesman’s friendly leader, Champagne, while Channing Tatum, as the gruff Agent Tequila, brings along some mild cross-cultural tension and a few dance moves left over from “Magic Mike.”
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There are very few moments in War Dogs that don't feel as though they're aping other features; in its storytelling, aesthetic, and music choices, a blend of both Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street and Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike instantly spring to mind.
His Magic Mike-style dance is an instant classic.
It’s almost impossible that a human could have Efron’s abs and his comic timing, and director Nicholas Stoller definitely makes use of both, even working in a Magic Mike–worthy dance scene.
Shot by Rogen regular Brandon Trost, "Neighbors 2" has more visual style than you might expect of a character-driven comedy, especially in a tailgate party heist sequence that sees Efron delivering a “Magic Mike”-esque dance performance as a means of distraction.
Efron as Teddy, the former frat guy who can't let go of his college lifestyle, is simply there to be objectified, a role he embraces by performing a "Magic Mike" style dance number while oiled up in barbecue grease.