MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE
★★
OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 112 MINS
DIRECTOR Steven Soderbergh
CAST Channing Tatum, Salma Hayek Pinault, Vicki Pepperdine
The promise and ethos of the Magic Mike franchise is to give women what they want, but this falls short by talking too much, dancing too little. Incandescent sequel Magic Mike XXL celebrated how charming Channing Tatum’s Mike and his stripping buddies are in a road-trip movie. Last Dance, however, plays like a contemporary-dance GCSE project, celebrating the Magic Mike Live! show in London without fully doing justice to the spirit of the films. Tatum is trapped in a screwball narrative with Salma Hayek Pinault’s rich divorcée Max, enlisting the live show’s real dancers for one big blowout. But there is a nagging sensation that the magic has been lost. Bring back the triple threats, lose the romcom tropes, and entertain the women — isn’t that Mike’s one job? EK