Like, why is there so little skin in an R-rated “Magic Mike” sequel? If this oddly self-justifying series needs to prove anything, it’s not the importance of dance, but the non-importance of pants. “Last Dance” opens with Maxandra’s teenage daughter Zadie (Jemelia George) narrating some kind of dissertation on the significance of dance through human history, as if anyone needed convincing. The same goes for the rest of this new script, which plays more like a made-for-cable backstage musical than a gender-swapped “Pretty Woman” fantasy. But trying to repeat the same trick 11 years later, implying that Mike’s furniture business went bust during the pandemic and now he’s fallen on tough times, is just plain lazy. That gave the film real-world, working-class cred. Why London? That’s where this wish-fulfillment scenario takes place, after Magic Mike gives his first dance to small-time actor turned big-time media mogul’s wife Maxandra Mendoza ( Salma Hayek).īack in 2012, Tatum and writing buddy Reid Carolin had the clever idea of referencing the financial crisis in “Magic Mike’s” opening minutes.

Meanwhile, gone are all the other gorgeous hunks who road-tripped with him in “Magic Mike XXL” - unless you count a lo-res video conference with Ken, Tarzan and two other old friends when Mike gets to London. Tatum’s still got it, and he ain’t about to retire, even if his semi-autobiographical hero, Mike Lane, has lost his magic and seems ready to hang up his thong. had made a movie about male strippers, it might look something like “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” a soft, in-name-only sequel to the 2012 hit, whose title is about as convincing as reports of director Steven Soderbergh’s retirement. “Toothless” probably isn’t the first word “Magic Mike” fans want to associate with Channing Tatum’s aging exotic dancer series, but there’s no denying the female-targeting franchise has dulled its bite over the past decade.

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