After stepping away for Magic Mike XXL, Steven Soderbergh returns to complete the trilogy with Magic Mike’s Last Dance. Channing Tatum stars once again as Mike Lane. Broke after his furniture business failed, he is bartending in Florida when he meets Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek) who persuades him to go to London with her to create and direct a show.
I was listening to the Filmspotting podcast when the hosts were discussing an upcoming show where they were going to review this film. They were talking about whether they should feature a top five Magic Mike scenes or top five dance scenes. They decided that either way, their choices would just feature dance routines. I could not agree less with that. What made the original Magic Mike so good, was the story away from the dancefloor.
The beach scene, for example, was one of the best of the 2010’s. The problem with Magic Mike’s Last Dance is that away from the dance moves, there is nothing inspired at all. Taking Mike away from his humble surroundings to become a rich ladies plaything does not work. The relationship between the down-to-earth Mike and the annoying, selfish, entitled Max does not ring true, and the voiceover that pops up from time to time is horrible.
On the plus side, the show at the end of the film will please some viewers more into dance than I am. Tatum oozes an easy charm and stars in the one innovative dance routine on a rain-soaked stage. Ayub Khan-Din has some nice acerbic one-liners as Max’s sardonic valet and it is good to see Vicki Pepperdine as an uptight bureaucrat who is unexpectedly charmed by the dance troupe.
A disappointing end to the story of Mike Lane.
Rating: 6 out of 10