Magic Mike (June 2012)

Genre:

Comedy/Drama

Directed by:

Steven Soderbergh

Starring:

Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, Olivia Munn, Matt Bomer, Riley Keough, Joe Mangianello, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez, Gabriel Iglesias

Release date:

Fri 29, Jun 2012

Budget             $7 million

Box office            $154,427,040

     Magic Mike is a 2012 comedy-drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh, and starring Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, Olivia Munn, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez and Gabriel Iglesias. The plot revolves around Adam, a ninteeen-year-old man, who enters the world of stripping, guided by Mike Lane, who has been in the business for six years.

     The film is loosely based on the experiences of Tatum, who was a nineteen-year-old stripper in Tampa, Florida. Magic Mike was primarily filmed in Los Angeles and in Tampa. It premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012 and was widely released by Warner Bros. on June 29, 2012. The film received positive reviews upon its release and was a box-office success.

Plot

     Thirty-year-old Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) has big ideas although he works at a number of odd jobs, such as construction, roofing and car detailing, and all the while works as a male dancer to the delight of scores of women, at the Xquisite Strip Club at nights. The club is owned by Dallas, (Matthew McConaughey) who is a self-serving, all-indulging proprietor of the club, and has designs on creating an empire which in his words, will "globally dominate" the world of male strippers. He forgoes friendships and loyalty to achieve his dream, including jeopardizing a close friendship with Mike who has been with him from the start for 6 years and is one of Dallas' star performers.

     Nineteen-year-old Adam (Alex Pettyfer) is a slacker who moves to Tampa, Florida to live with his sister, Brooke (Cody Horn), after ruining his chances to play college football on scholarship, by fighting with his coach on the first day of practice. He gets a job at a local construction company, installing roofs. However, Adam quits after his first day when the supervisor catches him stealing extra sodas from the construction cooler. While on the job, he meets Mike, who takes an instant liking to him, and ends up giving Adam a ride home from the jobsite after Adam's car won't start. They begin to forge their friendship on the drive home. Mike realizes that Adam could use some direction and feels he might be able to provide it. The following night, Adam spots Mike about to enter a popular nightclub where he promotes the male revue show happening later that evening. Mike reluctantly gets him into the nightclub, in spite of Adam's shabby appearance, and makes it clear that Adam "owes" him for the favor. Adam soon learns that Mike has a sideline gig as a stripper known at the Xquisite Club as "Magic Mike". Mike takes Adam to the strip club and introduces him to manager Dallas, and the other dancers - Ken, Tarzan, Tito, and Big Dick Richie. The club's DJ, drug dealer Tobias, provides the dancers with samples of refined GHB. However, Tarzan ingests too much of the drug, and is unable to perform. Dallas doesn't know what to do as women are screaming in the audience,and asks Mike for ideas. Mike then convinces Adam to fill in for "Tarzan" and Adam is a hit with the women customers after performing in what looked like an innocent "I'm not sure what to do here", routine, which brought the women to their feet.

     Afterwards, Adam is convinced to join the Xquisite team and Dallas nicknames him "The Kid". Mike and Adam's sister Brooke are introduced and a subtle, underlying attraction continues to grow in the following months, despite that Brooke is dating a man who lives in Orlando and Mike has an on-again off-again sexual relationship with a woman named Joanna, which usually includes three-way consensual sex with a third woman.

     Adam falls further into the excessive lifestyle of the Xquisite dancers, using drugs and having sexual encounters with many clients. When Dallas announces he has a plan to move their act to Miami, Mike confides in Brooke that he is tiring of the lifestyle and wants to get a small business loan to pursue his dream of opening a custom furniture business. The bank declines his loan application and Mike realizes that he has to stay in the business to continue to pay his bills. Mike later attends a hurricane party at Dallas' house, where Adam becomes part of a scheme created by Tobias to sell drugs to Xquisite's clients, and is eventually given a package of ecstasy. Adam begins using drugs regularly, and Mike notices more of Adam's reckless behaviour, to the chagrin of Brooke who is relying on Mike to protect him. A few days later, Mike and Adam perform for a private party at a sorority house, and Adam brings the package of drugs with him. At the party a girl was given an ecstasy pill by Adam, causing a brawl between Adam and the girl's boyfriend. Mike and Adam are forced to flee the scene. Later, at Xquisite, Dallas is infuriated to learn Mike didn't collect payment for the private show before the fight occurred. After that night's show at the club is finished, Mike and Adam take drugs and go to a club. Adam winds up vomiting and passing out, with Brooke finding him on the floor the next morning. Brooke angrily confronts Mike and accuses him of failing to protect her brother (as he had promised) and ends her friendship with him. Later on, Tobias' suppliers break into Mike's house looking for Adam. Realizing Adam lied to him about the drugs' worth, Mike gives them $10,000 (most of his life savings) to pay Adam's debt, unbeknownst to Brooke. Later, during the dancers' final performance at Xquisite, Mike decides he's had enough, knowing that Dallas has no loyalty to any of them and is driven by greed. Pretending he needs to use the restroom, he leaves through the club's exit and drives away to end up at Brooke's apartment, where he tells her he is through with stripping.

     After realizing Magic Mike isn't coming back, Dallas invites Adam to replace Mike as the frontman of the dancers. Brooke then tells Mike that after he left her apartment earlier, Adam called her to tell her that Mike had paid off the drug dealers for him. They forgive each other, admit their mutual attraction, and decide to begin a relationship.

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References.

External links:

"Main Page." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Sept. 2012. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>.

https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi 

 

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