There are many impressively choreographed dance routines for the audience to gawp at but peel back the layers and you'll find that once the film is stripped down, Magic Mike is a grower and not a shower.
The plotline of a young innocent being seduced into a world of "money, women and a good time" is certainly nothing new but the film puts a new spin on it by focusing on the mentor to "The Kid" and not "The Kid" himself. Mike is a man attempting to live the American Dream yet he discovers the American economy (specifically the banks) won't let him. He claims stripping is simply the means to finance his own custom furniture business. Thanks to a hugely charismatic lead in Channing Tatum, Soderbergh weaves plenty of humour and heart throughout a story that's not afraid to darken the mood or throw some social commentary into the mix, making sure the end result is more Boogie Nights than Burlesque.
Tatum is good in the role, yet the true star of the show is McConaughey. Following on from his revelatory performance in Killer Joe, he sends himself here up with a vain, sleazy, egotistical turn that includes scenes where he takes his shirt off and one where he plays the bongos (alluding to his own arrest in 1999). He goes all out to shatter the public's perception of him.
This is a film about stripping that's more than skin deep. Recommended.
