So what is it, then? Inspired by star and producer Channing Tatum's own experience as a male stripper, "Magic Mike" is "42nd Street,""On the Waterfront," the aforementioned "Showgirls" and a hundred other movies neatly tucked into one little thong. This nimble diversion makes up for a lot of higher-minded or lower-aiming Hollywood junk of late.

The characters don't treat one another like punch lines or idiots. There are no real villains in the piece. Purest corn, "Magic Mike" nonetheless has a human pulse and a sense of humor to go along with its willingness to entertain.
 

Tatum first worked with the frenetically prolific Soderbergh on the eccentric and (metaphorically) stripped-down"Haywire,"which went nowhere and back with the public. I'd be surprised if "Magic Mike" met the same fate. When the project's right, as it was with Soderbergh's "Ocean's 11" remake (and, with diminishing returns, the sequels), the director has a knack for revitalizing the oldest cliches in the book, while setting them at an aesthetic remove.

Soderbergh's also terrific at letting his actors play up to the best of their abilities, whatever their abilities. This is a polite way of saying Tatum, as the construction worker by day who works constructively in a different line of work by night, has never been better. Even if he's not much of an actor — when things get serious, Tatum appears to be giving birth, painfully, to the simplest of lines of dialogue — he's increasingly comfortable and likable on screen.

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