Posts tagged with “Channing Tatum”
Let’s Talk About…Step Up Revolution
Occupy Dance Street!
Kimberly: Sarah! Is there a better way to celebrate a Serious Movie Lover’s birthday than boozing/pizzaing it up, then going to St. Louis’s stickiest theater to see the latest addition to the dance battle canon? I think we both know the answer, and it involves “woos” and raising the roof. Step Up Revolution is the fourth iteration of the “hot guy of indeterminate age with twinkletoes meets girl, they salsa and develop feelings, outside forces intervene, they dance it out” series, and it did not disappoint. We’ve gone south to Miami, where all the dresses are microminis and the boys wear beach sneakers. There we meet Sean, who leads a crew of dancypants (“The Mob”) who flash mob (I know—stay with me, though) around the city and upload performance videos to YouTube. As is common practice on the internets, YouTube is giving $100,000 to the makers of the video that gets the most “clicks.” So those feets better move fancy! Read more »
Soderbergh Scores with Outlandishly Entertaining Magic Mike
Matthew McConaughey embraces his destiny in Magic Mike
MAGIC MIKE (2012/In Theaters) So a certain fellow Serious Movie Lover and I found ourselves in a theater full of ladies the other night. There was booze in our soda pop and electricity in the air. We were not disappointed. Magic Mike is hysterical. One hundred and ten minutes of jaw dropping spectacle. Nudity of all types and combinations, drugs, language, sparkly sequined thongs, grinding, gyrating, homo-eroticism, shiny torsos, and countless delightful costume-y hats. The plot, such as it is, revolves around the titular Mike (a surprisingly charming Channing Tatum), a male stripper with higher aspirations who loves a good time, and his protege, The Kid (an unsurprisingly bland Alex Pettyfer, or perhaps you know him as Number Four? No? Just us, then). I won’t spoil the finer details — love story, yada yada, morality tale, blah blah blah. The real reason to see this movie is the gloriously greasy performance by Matthew McConaughey as Dallas, the ring leader of our stripper pals. Dallas is the ultimate realization of the untrustworthy-but-oddly-charismatic-sleazeball persona McConaughey introduced us to in Dazed and Confused. He is a wonder to behold. Tatum really is great too, putting his Step Up moves to good use and showing an appealing sense of humor. The rest of the strippers do pretty well and look respectfully chiseled and shiny. Cody Horn, as The Kid’s protective sister, is impressively terrible, mistaking squinting blankly for “portraying emotion.” But it doesn’t matter. Her role evaporated from my brain the minute I walked out of the theater. We say, go see this and don’t expect anything more than a raucous good time. You will not be sorry.
Grade: A (for Aaaaw yeah)
PS — Here’s an interesting read from The New York Times about McConaughey’s shift from rom-com crap to more interesting roles of late.
Great Faces in a So-So Action Flick
HAYWIRE (2011/IN THEATERS) 
The previews for Stephen Soderbergh’s latest effort looked pretty darn good. Featuring a boatload of good looking faces including Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, and Michael Douglas, and introducing real-life kick-ass MMA superstar Gina Carano as the main character Mallory Kane (a woman’s version of Jason Bourne), the previews promised lots of action combined with classic Soderbergh arty filmmaking. Critics like the film and have given it an 86% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating. Audiences on the other hand have reacted quite differently, voting the movie a D+ Cinemascore and a low 46% on RT. The plot of the film (which is very thin) has us following Mallory Kane as she makes her way from upstate New York to her father’s house in New Mexico, pursued by her former employer and lover Kenneth (McGregor) who has set her up in her last jobs in Barcelona and Dublin, and is clearly looking to polish her off. Why, we don’t know and won’t know until a final “reveal” at the end. As Mallory waits in a small coffee shop, her friend/colleague (or enemy?) Aaron (Tatum) enters and asks her to leave with him. When she refuses, he throws hot coffee in her face and starts to smash her head into the floor. Not to worry, though, since our girl is able to eventually break his arm and knock him unconscious. Hey! It is an action picture after all. Through a series of flashbacks we see that Mallory’s past week has been full of action—including at least one person posing as her partner who is also trying to kill her (Fassbender, in a small but well played part). He dies too. I won’t spoil the movie for you by giving more plot details, but let’s just say this is no “Bourne Identity.” For some reason, despite all these attractive and talented actors, and some cool editing and music, the picture is not at all suspenseful and feels slow. It could be the story-line and the absence of any clever dialog. But perhaps the biggest problem is Gina Carano herself. She is a real-life MMA superstar and that shows on screen. But unfortunately she can’t act and since she is the centerpiece of the picture, that’s a problem which is hard to overcome. My advice: wait for the DVD—this will be a perfect popcorn movie one of these long winter nights.
Grade: B-
