Magic Mike – Review

magic mike poster

I found Magic Mike to be very interesting, mainly because of the way it was told. In most movies, we meet the hero as he’s starting off on a new adventure that takes him from the world he knows to a new and fantastic place. Think Luke Skywalker in Star Wars or Daniel in The Karate Kid.

However, in Magic Mike the main protagonist isn’t the guy new on the scene. If it was, the movie would be called Magic Adam. Magic Mike follows the story of Mike, the top male stripper in Tampa. Having Mike be the central character of the story felt like watching Star Wars if Ben Kenobi was the focus of the film.

I think this shift in focus is what makes Magic Mike so interesting. We’re not watching a guy at the top of his game be usurped by the new kid on the block. Mike discovers Adam, but at no point does it seem like Adam is going to overtake Mike. Hell, if it weren’t for Mike’s generosity and sense of friendship, Adam wouldn’t even be alive by the end of the film. Side note: who carries around $10,000 in drugs on them? Adam’s an idiot.

Seriously, Adam might be one of the most boneheaded characters in all of cinema. He combined his dumbassness with being fairly unlikable. He went from being a fuck up with no prospects to a fuck up with a drug problem and poor spending habits. Any time he got punched, I took a bit of schadenfreude-like glee from it.

matthew mcconoughey magic mike

Matthew McConaughey is amazing as Dallas.

I liked that Mike wasn’t just a meat head. He has a dream, to open up his own custom furniture business, but he doesn’t have the means to make it a reality. Dallas, played expertly by Matthew McConaughey, promises Mike equity once they move to a bigger and better club in Miami, but Mike’s not getting any younger, and the male stripper game definitely have a cut-off date, age wise. Then again, try telling that Kevin Nash’s character, Tarzan.

kevin nash tarzan magic mike

It fun seeing Kevin Nash in this movie, only because I didn’t know Kevin Nash acted. Not that Kevin Nash does much acting in this movie. He spends most of his non-dancing time passed out or squinting at someone. But while he didn’t have many lines, he was involved in one of the funniest parts of the movie, when the guys haze Adam on his first night in the club.

If there’s a weak link in this movie, it’s Adam’s sister and Mike love interest, Brooke, played by Cody Horn. I felt like the filmmakers couldn’t afford Anna Kendrick and that Julia Stiles turned them down. Her performance was often wooden. She didn’t show that spark that would have given her character a bit of life.

Your girlfriend has probably already seen Magic Mike at least once, and has probably raved about it to you. I can understand your hesitation at taking her recommendation for a movie featuring bare-assed ripped guys with a grain of salt, but that would be a mistake. Underneath the six pack abs and man-thongs is a movie with heart told from an unconventional point of view. Magic Mike is definitely worth watching.

Olivia Munn - Magic Mike

Did I forget to mention that a topless Olivia Munn is in Magic Mike?

The Wolf of Wall Street – Review

the wolf of wall street poster

In my review for American Hustle, I said that it seemed like David O. Russell was attempting to do his best Martin Scorsese. The Wolf of Wall Street almost feels like this is Martin Scorsese’s answer back. “No, this is how you do Martin Scorsese.” Mr. Scorsese does Martin Scorsese to 11 with The Wolf of Wall Street. This movie is the most over the top project directed by Mr. Scorsese since the video for Michael Jackson’s Bad.

It’s The Wolf of Wall Street’s over the top tone that keeps it so entertaining for it’s exactly three hour running time. Yes, that’s right, 180 minutes. The Wolf of Wall Street is two minutes longer than the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.  Thankfully, Terrence Winter’s screenplay combined with Scorsese’s directing made for a much faster moving movie than it’s three hour run time would suggest. At no point was I looking at my watch, wondering how much more we had to go.

This is NOT the size soda you want to order for a 3 hour movie.

This is NOT the size soda you want to order for a 3 hour movie.

Following what I would call the classic Martin Scorsese story arc, Jordan Belfort gets really good at doing something bad, is handsomely rewarded for it and then comes crashing down to earth in the end. It’s almost like Goodfellas on steroids. The money that Jordan Belfort makes in The Wolf of Wall Street puts Henry Hill’s biggest heist to shame. Though when the rug gets pulled out from under him, Jordan has a much easier fall than Henry did. They both lose the lives they had, but Jordan’s bounce into his new life seems to have bounced a lot higher than Hill’s, at least in the way that the ending of The Wolf of Wall Street depicts it.

The acting in The Wolf of Wall Street is top notch. Leonardo DiCaprio shows again why he is this author’s favorite actor of his generation. Best Leading Actor Oscar worthy? Not this year, when your competition is Matthew McConoughey in Dallas Buyers Club and Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave. That said, this continues the streak of Leonardo DiCaprio films being films you should see.

Jonah Hill is great as Belfort’s right hand man, Donnie Azoff. Hill has the most entertaining line in the whole movie when he lets out, “I want…to smoke crack…with youuu!” shortly after meeting Belfort. This will be the line I quote most from the movie.

According to IMDB, Matthew McConoughey’s chest thumping at lunch was McConoughey’s idea, and not something that happened that lunch in real life. This makes sense, as that scene is pure McConoughey. That chest thumping is a warming ritual McConoughey does before acting.

We caught The Wolf of Wall Street at the excellent 84th and Broadway AMC. Dear New York City, why would you go to any other movie theater? This one rocks. Barcaloungers, reserved seats, a well stocked snack bar, what more could I want? If a movie I want to see is playing in this theater, I want to see it in this theater.

tommy popcorn

This size popcorn is 100% the right size popcorn for a 3 hour movie.

Yes, The Wolf of Wall Street is three hours long. Yes, the f-bomb is dropped over 500 times in the movie. Yes, there’s a lot of drug use, nudity and unsavory characters. And also…yes, you should definitely see it.

Mud – Review

5/5 – Like Stand By Me, but with more McConaughey

When you watch Stand By Me, do you think to yourself, “This movie is good, but it would be great if it had Matthew McConaughey in it.” If you do, then Mud is the movie for you.

Okay, maybe I’m being too glib. Mud is neither a carbon copy nor a rip off of Stand By Me. But I am guessing that if like one one, you will also like the other. Tonally, they are very similar.

Of course McConaughey is shirtless in Mud.

McConaughey plays the titular character in Mud, but he’s not the main character of the film.  That would be Ellis, a young teen who, along with his best friend, Neckbone, encounters Mud living in the boat they want to salvage from up in a tree. I’d like to pause here and say that Neckbone is the coolest name I’ve heard for a supporting character this year. Who names a kid Neckbone? It’s not his given name, that gets used a couple of time throughout the movie, so how on Earth does a kid pick up that nickname? I’m hoping for a Neckbone: Origins prequel in 2014.

Neckbone and Ellis

Mud is a gritty movie. Not over the top gritty like Sin City, but gritty in a these are real people with real problems kind of way. People who have fallen out love, people who have fallen on the wrong side of the law, or in Mud’s case the wrong side of some very bad men; these are the people that inhabit the world of the film Mud. But like the character Mud, the the overall film Mud has a lot of heart.

Okay, Matt, we get it. You’re ripped. Put a shirt on already.

One word of caution though, be careful what advice you take from Mud. As it turns out, a snake will cross a braided rope.

Mud is a serious contender for the best of 2013. Buy it now on Amazon.