The “Magic Mike” saga was a big bag of fun while it lasted. And it lasted up to — but not including — the third and maybe-final film in the series, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance.”
That’s a frustrating state of affairs. Director Steven Soderbergh has been on a remarkable, unpredictable roll for a long time now. To be sure, the new “Magic Mike” movie doesn’t misfire in predictable or conventional ways. It delivers enough of the requisite abs / air-grinding / shirtlessness / thirstiness to divert die-hard fans of the franchise from the peculiar story. Like people care about the story, right? And yet people do, especially if the story that’s there feels off.
After the largely, agreeably plotless hangouts with Mike and company in “Magic Mike” (2012) and the Gregory Jacobs-directed “Magic Mike XXL” (2015), screenwriter Reid Carolin returns with a self-mythologizing narrative trading laughs for sincerity and then, all too early, sincerity for solemnity. Less fun, more heart was the idea, along with real hope for the emotional health and romantic well-being of the Channing Tatum character.
