Magic Mike? Yes please!

Phew!  After all the Sharon Needles controversy, let's get on to the most important part about this weekend: Magic Mike FINALLY opened and Lauren and I went!  Thank goodness!  After seeing and hearing all these crazy things about it, I was practically jumping out of my skin to see it!  I mean, I get to see Joe Manganiello shirtless on a pretty regular basis on True Blood but to see him shirtless (and pants-less) for almost 2 hours straight (even if he was mostly in the background)?!  Thank the Lord!



Matt Bomber doing things like this?! YES PLEASE!


Alex Pettyfer being ridiculously hot? YES YES YES


I wish I had taken my friend Brad's advice: see the movie and then go to Swinging Richards afterwards. If you're not from Atlanta, you don't know that Swinging Richards is an all male nude show. Not quite the caliber of Magic Mike or Stallionz (remember that from Glee? It's where Sam worked for a spell...) but it's close and it's quite the experience - although I hear they're cracking down on the amount of ladies that go there since it's technically a gay strip club but, you know, technicalities and all that...
Ugh.  And I feel dirty too.  Not because I saw the movie but because I'm not a Soderberg fan.  Yeah, I said it.  I do enjoy the Ocean's 11, 12, and 13 movies but that's about all I can stand in his director's lineup. We gave The Girlfriend Experience a shot but it didn't quite grab us like I thought it would. I'm sure Sasha Grey was wonderful and I'm sure I'll give it another chance. Later.
Magic Mike had Soderberg's trademark angles and weird dialogue.  The only way I can describe it is like this: He's got the general idea of the script and it's there, on set, with the script supervisor but for some reason, he feels the need to tell the actors the gist of the scene and maybe a key sentence they need to deliver but they can deliver it any way they want to, so long as they get that one sentence out. Like weird ad-libbing or something. And I only say that because there were quite a few scenes where Channing Tatum was trying to get out something like "I'm not Magic Mike in real life" but he stammered and stuttered his way through it and it felt like a bunch of okay takes were strung together to make the scene work. There were also a few places where Cody Horn was waiting for her cue to react. 10 seconds doesn't sound like a lot of time but in movie time, it's like an eternity. It's not her fault...
I tried to watch the movie without my behind-the-scenes eye but I couldn't help it! There were so many places where I was cringing at the lines being delivered and the Soderberg Angle and the multiple conversations happening that it was hard for me to stay focused on Joe Manganiello's abs.  The horror, I know.  All of that aside, I enjoyed the movie. I mean, when do us girls get a male exploitation movie huh?! Hardly ever and this one definitely delivers.  I think I might splurge and get myself the Blu Ray extended director's cut version of it when it comes out on DVD.  It'll be worth it.

How was your weekend?