There's no magic in 'Mike' - Boston Herald

It's raining men, all right. "Showgirls" for women, "Magic Mike" tells the fact-based story of a young man's rise and fall in the sordid world of male stripping in Tampa, Fla.

"Citizen Kane" this isn't. It's not "Huck Finn" in a thong, either. What it is is a lame and cliched plot attached to a series of "Flashdance"-like numbers that recall everything from the Village People in their heyday to a Mr. Universe contest with well-oiled, -gyrating contestants.

Channing Tatum, who really can dance and whose real-life experiences provide the basis for the screenplay by writer-producer Reid Carolin, is would-be enterepreneur Mike, also known as Magic Mike.

Mike works in a roofing business during the day and takes his clothes off to music at night at a club called Xquisite run by older dancer-host Dallas (Matthew McConaughey boldly spoofing his own image). Also working nights at Xquisite are Tito (Adam Rodriguez), giant veteran stoner Tarzan (Kevin Nash) and Richie (Joe Manga-niello), whose nickname cannot be repeated here.

Together, these men are the self-styled "Rocking Kings of Tampa," and their mission is to show you a good time. We know this because director Steven Soderbergh, whose last film was "Haywire," keeps cutting to young women in the Xquisite audience who are hooting and hollering on cue.

The "star" in this New Age "A Star Is Born" is the aptly named Adam (semi-conscious Brit Alex Petty-fer of the dismal "I Am Number Four"). Adam tags along with new friend Mike to Xquisite and finds Dallas in desperate need of someone new to step up. Gee, this is so original.

"Magic Mike," like the aforementioned "Showgirls," has its moments, and there are times when it seems like Tatum is the Cristal to Pettyfer's Nomi. Shot in refreshing unshaky-cam, the dance numbers and other scenes are nicely, if minimally, staged. Scenes involving drug use suggest that Soderbergh is going for a 1960s-'70s-style, polychromatic, tripping-out look.

As Mike's love interest and Adam's med technician sister, who gets upset when her little brother shaves his legs, newcomer Cody Horn, the daughter of former Warner Bros.' head Alan Horn, is sur-prisingly good and — surprise — does not have to take her clothes off. As a psychology grad student and sex addict, Olivia Munn is convincing and does have to take her clothes off. On one level, "Magic Mike" is a parade of hairless sculpted and deeply bronzed male buttocks.

A lot of the film's dialogue sounds improvised, or at least I hope it was. Mike dreams of starting up a business making custom furniture. His sample -photos are hideous.

In one scene, Adam and Mike go to a sorority dressed as policemen and perform for the college girls there while their angry boyfriends watch and eventually blow up. In another, a little pig dines on someone's puke. I said "sordid," right? Eventually, "Magic Mike" just peters out.

("Magic Mike" contains nudity, sexually suggestive scenes and drug use and is still not much fun.)