*“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” might not be his last dance since his magical turn of events. Channing Tatum reprises his role as Mike Lane and Steven Soderbergh returns to the helm as director. Following a business deal that went bust, leaving him broke and taking bartender gigs in Florida, Lane is introduced to wealthy socialite Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault). She makes him an offer he can’t refuse.
Lane heads off to London with Mendoza for $60,000. There, he works with Mendoza to overhaul the prestigious Rattigan Theater into a club primarily to showcase male strippers. The inclusive shows leave no stone unturned. Even gray-haired women were served on the floor and in the chairs.
Having the luxury of not seeing Magic Mike 1 and 2, I went in with no real expectations. Only expecting to see mainly bump and grind scenes. But instead, there is a story to be told. And, some of the choreography has elements of ballet, which proved to be quite entertaining.
Likable characters are also very important for a film’s success. Mendoza’s butler/chauffeur Victor (Ayub Khan Din) and her adopted daughter, the perceptive Zadie Rattigan (Jemelia George), are scene stealers.
Tatum, who also serves as a producer, made it quite clear before going into production what he wanted to accomplish with a mission statement: “The first movie about Mike realizing, ‘I need to figure out what I’m doing with my life.’ The second one put these guys on a pedestal and let them flesh out their characters, but it was still really about these men. Since then, women in films have become more open, more conversational about what they want, and we’d also created the live show. What we learned doing that made us want to make this third movie and to really redesign what Magic Mike is. We wanted to put the best dancers in the world in the movie, and have a strong female lead who is pivotal to the story and as important as Mike in the plot.”
Juliette Motamed, Caitlin Gerard, and Gavin Spokes also star in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance.”
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