I can already tell a lot of women out there are going to disagree with me, but I was not that impressed by this movie. In fact, I found myself a little bored at times. Personally, I expected more out of at least Channing Tatum; if the story wasn’t going to sweep me off my feet, I was hoping that I’d at least get to see a great dance number or two. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case—though I’ll admit perhaps I was spoiled by Tatum’s dancing back when he did Step Up (2006).
I thought the story could have gone somewhere, but I felt like it never really did. Plot lines would start and wrap up weakly, and there was a lack in character development. I never felt fully invested in any of the characters, not to mention I found the acting to be surprisingly flat.
I didn’t really believe the romance between Tatum and Cody Horn’s characters, and Alex Pettyfer’s character was too much of a jerk for me to like. As the movie was going I also couldn’t help but think it was a bit of a waste that Adam Rodriguez chose to star in this movie over The Dark Knight Rises, because I feel like working on that production could have been an opportunity to boost his career more effectively and be a step in the right direction post-CSI: Miami.
Transitions were also a problem for me in this movie; sure a lot of movies have that “it all pans out so conveniently” element to it, but this was one of those where things just seemed to pan out way too conveniently. For example, Pettyfer’s character always seemed to be in the right place, right time to run into Tatum’s Magic Mike. The jump from him talking to his sister and then happening to see Mike while walking outside just seemed a little too random.
I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, this movie just didn’t live up to the hype for me.
FINAL VERDICT: D
I found it fairly difficult to stay interested, and none of the strip numbers really wowed me. I actually kind of surprised myself at how unimpressed I felt by the end of the movie. To be fair, there were a few parts that had me and some of the audience members chuckling, but for the most part the theater was pretty quiet. Then again, perhaps they were enjoying the view.
Cutting Edge Creativity 
I was a little more generous with my review of this movie but mostly because I was dragged to it by my girlfriend and my bar was set pretty low for it from the get go. Anyways I’m suprised at how difficult it’s getting for me to dislike Tatum in some of his recent movies, he’s actually developed a pretty decent sense of comedic timing and (gasp) even manages to convey real emotions from time to time. Even so, the rest of the cast was completely unimpressive so I was never much more than mildly entertained throughout.
I’ve always liked Channing, but I’ll admit he’s not the strongest actor. Even now he’s steadily improving, but he has a long way to go if he wants to be one of the best. I actually heard on the radio that he even admitted to that himself in an interview. I do agree though, he’s always been funny and that’s his strength. It does seem Hollywood is catching on to that. 😉
And I totally agree; as I believe I said in my entry, the acting overall to me was just rather flat and disappointing.