Magic Mike’s Last Dance Review: A Show-Stopping Conclusion!

Eleven years ago we met Mike Lane and his band of Miami strippers, including talents like Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, and many more. It has been a roller coaster of a trilogy. Its title film Magic Mike defied all expectations by showing the audience that they were not in for a fun ride of male stripping but in fact a serious and depressing look at working class men who get tied up in a world of money and power.

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Magic Mike XXL, turned the tables and gave audiences a party film ready to dive into what they thought the people wanted to see. What to me, always felt like a series that had difficulty balancing its themes and its fun, has landed on its feet for Magic Mike’s Last Dance creating a perfect final chapter to a trilogy that has always been growing along the way.

Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Kayek) meets Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) while he is bartending at her charity event. Upon finalizing her divorce and feeling like she has lost a part of herself, she asks Mike (who she learns from a friend used to be a stripper) if he would be able to give her just one dance. What happens after can only be experienced because there are no words, says Max.

The evolution of Mike in this final film and his growth was amazing to see, proving that love is something often you can’t seek out but instead something that must come to you. Salma Hayek not only plays the best female love interest in the series but her presence brings up one of the most important points that the other two films were missing, the perspective of a woman.

Magic Mike Last Dance has a great balance of entertainment and more dramatic themes of rediscovered identity and desire. It was able to harness everything the last two films either tried to get across or was not ready to encapsulate. Mike’s ability to relinquish power to allow love in is exciting to watch while Max’s ability to feel like she can have it all and not have to choose furthers the feminist elements of the film in a great way.

The film evolves the element of dance to mean a variety of things, casting incredibly talented dancers who use their skills to learn the techniques of stripping, in the classiest way. The immense talent of the dancers in Magic Mike’s Last Dance is unbelievable, making one realize the lack of rhythmic talent may have been hindering the others. The final thirty minute sequence has the most enjoyable and breath taking dancing sequences of all three movies and certainly goes out with a bang. In the end, the film isn’t perfect but its growth in the last eleven years is something to be admired and Steven Soderbergh’s hand in this film again made it all worth the while.

‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ Rating – 3.5/5

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