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Release Date: 11/20
Starring: Britt Robertson, Chad Michael Murray, and Marla Sokoloff
AKA: Chad Michael Murray in a Christmas-themed Magic Mike.
First things first, the question on everyone's minds: Can Chad Michael Murray dance? The answer is...not really! However, seeing our early 2000s heartthrob grinding while shirtless is still a sight to behold, though probably not for reasons he'd find complimentary.
Like all good male stripper movies, The Merry Gentlemen is big on vibes, loose on plot. Ashley (Britt Robertson) is a big city dancer who heads back to her small town after being fired and realizes she needs to save her parents’ struggling performing arts venue. So, naturally, she recruits our man Chad (a handyman named Luke) and some other meaty locals to start an all-male dance team to raise funds to save it.
Though I respect the effort, our man CMM has little to no rhythm, and is completely upstaged by the random bartender and cab driver who appear out of thin air to dance alongside him. I especially enjoyed when the cabbie started doing backflips and dropping into the splits, as if that's a normal thing for a cab driver to be able to do (Christmas magic, I guess?) Also, Chad, I beg, get some K18 for those fried ends!
My biggest gripe with this film? It's not sexy enough. If the concept is "Magic Mike but in a small town," the expectation is more Magic Mike, less small town. These very dehydrated, very shredded men are doing a disservice to themselves by only removing their shirts!
Between the watered down dancing and the chaste relationship between our central characters (they barely get to first base), I'm left wondering, who is this movie for? Tweens? Because it's certainly too PG for the horny female fan base the film was marketed to.
The saving grace: Millennials will get a kick out of the casting. In addition to Murray, Gia from Full House (Marla Sokoloff) stars as protagonist Ashley's older sister, Marie, and Aunt Zelda from the OG Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Beth Broderick) is Ashley's doting small town mom.
—Sam Reed, senior news and entertainment editor
Our Little Secret
Bob Mahoney/Netflix
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