Magic Mike (2012) Film Review

Mike (Channing Tatum) is a stripper who secretly dreams of having his own furniture business. Then he befriends an unemployed young man Adam (Alex Pettyfer) and tricks him onstage where he is pressured (by screaming woman and club MC Dallas, played by Matthew McConaughey) into removing his clothes. Then Adam is in despite his sister Brooke (Cody Horn) being unhappy with his choices.

Reverse the roles? This would be a horrifying tale of a woman being led astray by nasties. As it is, well, the male stripping industry is a lot different to the women’s, and this is just like a fun romp that a lot of people really love. I had been told it was a lot better than I’d expect it to be. This pretty much raised me up to the point where I thought it was… ok. The dancing is good (especially Channing Tatum – he has got some good moves), the bodies are very nice to look at, but there were a few things that I found a bit odd. Like, yes, Mike needed an extra guy on stage, but he seemed to readily to become friends with a nineteen-year-old boy who could barely communicate. And why did that hen’s party at the start consist of only two girls – that’s totally tragic! And how is it that all of the women in the audience were beautiful – even the older ones were gorgeous…. Or is that what Florida is like?

 

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Film Review

We’re back in the early days of X-Men. The really early days – there is a dude back in ancient Egypt who is a mutant, who rules as a god on earth and takes powers from other mutants. Luckily, there are some good guys who manage to trap him in the Earth for thousands of years. Unfortunately, he gets free and tries to take over. He’s always had four sidekicks, and this time is no different: he takes Angel (Ben Hardy ), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Psylocke (Olivia Munn) and our old favourite, Magneto (Michael Fassbender). So it is up to Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his guys to save the world.

For me, as someone who came to the X-Men films with no prior comic knowledge, this is all starting to get a bit confusing. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it. I love all the explosions and the craziness, and especially the powers, but I get a bit lost. Who is what? What powers do they have? Who is good and who is bad? And what’s the story with Magneto – after constantly being in these battle where he seems to (spoiler – I think?) change from the bad side to help the good, why does he keep being bad? What? I know I’ll keep watching these films and getting more and more confused, and I don’t really mind as long as they keep the special effects fancy and the costumes cool.