Magic Mike's Last Dance

* * * Stars - Rating M - 2022 -Drama/Comedy - 112 min)

Mike Lane takes to the stage again after a lengthy hiatus following a business deal that went bust leaving him broke and taking bartender gigs in Florida. For what he hopes will be one last hurrah Mike heads to London with a wealthy socialite who lures him with an offer he can't refuse... and an agenda all her own.

With everything on the line once Mike discovers what she truly has in mind will he-and the roster of hot new dancers he'll have to whip into shape-be able to pull it off?

Cast: Salma Hayek Channing Tatum Matt Bomer

Release date: 9 February 2023

No longer the best of the undressed

Less than 10 minutes in it looks for all the world like Magic Mike's Last Dance will be making all the correct moves required to deliver upon its tagline "take the guilty out of pleasure".

In what can only be described as the most spectacular unboxing of guy candy ever captured on the big screen Channing Tatum lustily shakes and quakes in spaces and places that no Richter scale will ever detect.

Perched at the eye of this syncopated tsunami of pressurised pecs shimmering abs and bouncing backsides is Salma Hayek soon to be ejected from her chair by the perfection of Tatum's lap-dancing storm like a house lifted skywards during a cyclone.

It is a sequence that is at once sensual silly and stupefyingly exciting. In fact it just has to be one of the great scenes of 2023.What a shame then that this big hunk of gold sits in a movie that will go down as one of the copper-bottomed duds of 2023.

Like the two Magic Mikes that came before it Last Dance is keen to slip a little sophisticated plotting into the mix when its audience is (understandably) looking elsewhere.While the franchise effortlessly got away with that nifty trick in the past the third time proves to be no charm at all.

No longer a soulful super-stripper extraordinaire Mike (Tatum) is grifting a basic buck as a bartender when he catches the eye of malcontent millionairess Maxandra (Hayek) at a posh Miami fundraiser.

Their chance meeting leads to that aforementioned lap-dance of a lifetime which earns Mike a first-class ticket to a new career as a choreographer in London.

In the throes of a complicated divorce from a manipulative husband Maxandra has brought Mike all this way to peeve her spouse in the most publicly embarrassing way possible.

Which is why Mike finds himself directing what will likely turn out to be a very American strip show on the stage of one of Britain's most beloved theatres.

The fruits of Mike and Maxandra's labours are nowhere near as outrageous nor cutting-edge as the movie believes them to be (though the actual dancing on display remains of a high calibre throughout).

Similarly the fiery chemistry shared by Tatum and Hayek in that first unforgettable scene fades away to a distant flickering glow by the time a long and less-than-triumphant finale is complete.