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True story: We almost missed the screening of Magic Mike because Robin got confused. We were supposed to have lunch, then watch Magic Mike at Greenbelt. He thought we were having lunch at the karaoke joint in Greenbelt.

L-R: Joe Mangianello, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike.

1. Channing Tatum is a very smart man. He knows that if everybody thinks you are a certain way (For instance a brainless slab of beef), you should play along and bide your time until you have amassed sufficient influence to show them what you really are. Which is a very smart man.

2. He has never attempted to deny that he was a male stripper; in fact he alludes to it constantly (See his hosting gig on Saturday Night Live). In the group numbers of the male revue, he stands out for sheer dancing ability. The other guys are also hot and capable dancers, but there is no question as to who the star is.

3. Apart from Tatum as Mike, Alex Pettyfer as his 19-year-old protege, and Matthew McConaughey as Dallas the manager of the club, there are no other characters. We know nothing about the strippers played by Matt Bomer, Joe Mangianello, Adam Rodriguez. Not that we’d like them to leave.

4. Throughout his unremarkable career we have wondered: “What is Matthew McConaughey good for?” We have our answer. This is the role he was born to play: retired stripper turned macho dancer impresario.

5. Cody Horn in the lead female role has that look we refer to as “the producer’s daughter”.

6. Cultural differences between America and the Philippines: This is a male stripper movie with no gay characters. (Unless you agree with Vivien’s reading that McConaughey’s character is gay.) If Magic Mike were set in the Philippines 70 percent of the audience would be men, gay men. Apparently in the US there are ladies-only strip clubs.

7. Vivien noted that if in six years the hardworking Mike has managed to save only USD13,000 from the bills stuffed into his thongs, they’re really in a recession.

8. The environment portrayed in Magic Mike is known to be rife with drugs, prostitution, criminal syndicates, sleaze. Perhaps because the film is based on the early life of its producer and star Tatum, the stripping…industry seems almost wholesome. Soderbergh’s film brings up drug use but almost as an afterthought. There is no mention of prostitution.

9. The movie has a washed-out look in the daytime but bright lights and color at night. Okay, we get it.

10. We are impressed that no one delivers a “Kid, don’t be like me” speech. (“Ah, the stupidity of youth: they think that because they have money and they can get laid every night they’ve got it made.” That’s not the movie, that’s us.) They don’t have to; the movie says it clearly.

Highly recommended.

P.S. There were noticeable cuts in the movie we saw. Perhaps the distributor Viva was worried that if the audience saw everything onscreen they would leave their husbands immediately.

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