For Sight & Sound’s next issue, I reviewed Magic Mike’s Last Dance, starring Channing Tatum and directed by Steven Soderbergh. I was a fan of Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL but this third entry feels like a misstep. Here’s the opening of the review.
A dowdy-looking London bureaucrat commutes to work on a number 12 bus, sharing the top deck with 11 other passengers – all of whom suddenly break into a coordinated strip routine fizzing with surprise, energy, flirtation and wit, a troupe working in sync to deliver a splash of real magic to an everyday setting. It’s a charming moment in a film that otherwise struggles to feel coordinated, original or plausible…
