Better Never Than Late on "Magic Mike"

This past Friday for date night my wife chose the movie "Magic Mike". I have never seen the movie before. She said she may or may not have, she could not fully remember. She did say that she thought she might have watched it at a party with all ladies, but she could not fully remember. We figured Friday night was as good a time as any, so we watched it on HBO Max. It was free, so that was nice too.

This was not the movie that I expected. I assumed it was going to be a good, energetic and fast paced movie about strippers. And coming off "Zola", which is a tremendous movie, I assumed I was in for another solid viewing. Well, it was not for me. And it had nothing to do with the fact that it was about male strippers. In fact the best parts of the movie, the parts I enjoyed was when they were at the strip club. They did not show any nudity, and seeing the way these actors danced and grabbed the attendants was pretty cool, but also stripping, of any kind, makes me uncomfortable. But there were only a few moments in the movie where they talked about stripping or did their thing. The other part of the movie, about 60 percent of it, was all the story developing and the lives of the characters. And it was mad boring. There was only so much I could watch of Channing Tatum going to work at his construction job. I also did not care, at all, about the relationship he built with his buddy's sister. It was pretty dull. The stuff with his buddy, played by Alex Ptefyer, was pretty blah as well. I read that the two of them did not get along on set, I have read quite a few things about Ptefyer being a headache, and that totally showed on screen. They truly seemed to hate one another, even though they were supposed to be friends. I also found all of the scenes outside of the random clubs to be super boring. Even when you get a glimpse into how Tatum gets people to come to the club, to see him work outside of work, it just simply had no oomph. It was very blah.

Honestly, the only stuff that worked was the club, and a few of the guys who worked there. I will give Tatum credit, even if I was not into the movie, you can see that this dude can act. He did a very solid job of being, basically himself. This may have been his first time taking a real shot at doing drama, and he did a good job. Joe Mangiello was funny and goofy, as his character should have been. Anyone called "Big Dick Rick" should never, ever take themselves seriously. And he did not take it too seriously. Ptefyer was lame, but I do not like that dude. Matt Bomer and the other dude I did not recognize were fine as side characters. But Matthew McCanoughey was the draw. He was having the best time in this role, and it showed. He was out there. He was wild. He was silly. And it was perfect. He was so wild and crazy, and much like Tatum, I feel like he did a good job of basically playing himself.

All in all the movie just did not work for me. It was too much Steven Soderbergh. He is a very, very good director. But this movie just seems like it is not something he should do. He is much better at doing harder drama, and when it comes to comedy, he should just stick with "Ocean's 11". "Magic Mike" is just not what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't the fun and silly movie I was hoping for. It took itself way, way too seriously. I do not get the hype around this movie, but that is just my opinion. I'd pass if you haven't seen it yet.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late than Never on "Logan Lucky"

During our quarantine date night last weekend it was my choice to pick the movie, and I chose “Logan Lucky”.

I had very fleeting memories of this movie when it came out in 2017. I saw a few trailers, saw the cast and saw it was directed by Steven Soderbergh. Those are winning elements for me. But I simply forgot about the movie. It seems like it was out of theaters pretty quick too. I thought it got decent reviews, it has Soderbergh’s name attached and the cast includes Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Riley Keough and Hilary Swank. I simply assumed it would be out for awhile, it may get award buzz and people would talk about it. None of that happened. In fact, the only way that I remembered it, and how my memory was jogged, was by searching for movies on On Demand, and seeing it there. I rewatched the trailer, with my wife, and we both decided we’d give it a try.

I’m glad we did. This was a very good, very fun movie. The cast is awesome. All the actors I mentioned were awesome. Keough, Tatum and Driver play siblings who devise a robbery plan. The catch, they’re, on the surface, bumbling idiots that can’t keep a job and are just kind of aimless. Tatum is divorced, likes to spend time with his daughter, blew out his knee which ruined his burgeoning football career and just jumps from job to job. But on one of his jobs is where he gets this idea to rob a very popular race in Charlotte. Driver is a one armed bartender, he lost his other arm in the war. He’s a vet, slow witted and believes his family is cursed. He only goes along with Tatum’s idea because he’s his little brother, and he owes him. Driver was superb in this role. Keough works at a salon, she helps with Tatum’s daughter and loves to drive. She’s such a good driver, she agrees to be the getaway driver. The three of them devise this plan after Tatum is laid off again, and he’s sick of his lot in life. They go over the plan, and they realize they need a safecracker. This is where Craig comes in, as Joe Bang. He’s the standout in this movie. He’s a jail bird, with bleach blonde hair and totally nails the southern accent. He’s so funny, so good at his skill and has some of the best moments in this whole movie. He made me laugh out loud many times. I love this route Craig is taking in his later career. He’s taking cool, fun and interesting roles and he’s nailing them. That’s exactly what he does as Joe Bang.

When the crew gets to the day to pull off the robbery, this is when the movie goes into hyperdrive, and I loved it. This is when we get all the heist movie stuff that I’ve grown to love. To see the plan unfold bit by bit is so much fun, and I love having it all laid out for me. And even when Tatum decides to go a different route, spoiler alert, and we get to see what he actually does with the money, it makes me love this movie that much more. And when Swank shows up, she’s only in the last third of this movie and she is awesome, she’s with the FBI trying to solve the robbery. She meets all kinds of dead ends, but she’s relentless. She wants to solve this so bad that even when they close the case, she goes out on her own to try and figure this out. The closing shot is of everyone at the bar that Driver works at, and Swank is seen flirting with Driver. It’s pretty cool.

I loved this movie. The acting, directing, style, everything about it works for me. It has that “Ocean’s 11” feel to it, so much so that the robbers are referred to as “Ocean’s 7-11”. That’s pretty wonderful. I can not recommend this movie enough. It is a true hidden gem that just happens to have legitimate movie stars in it. I wish it got more love when it was out in theaters, but now is a perfect time to check it out since we should all still be staying home as much as possible, or at the very least, not going to theaters or restaurants.

Check out “Logan Lucky” if you’re looking for a fun heist movie. I think you’ll really enjoy it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.