Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000) Reviews

Initial Thought: It's time for a little male enjoyment. If I can sit through both Magic Mike films I deserve to watch a few of these. Plus it has a fairly decent cast. I have been curious about this one for awhile.

Characters/Acting: There are a few oddball choices here like Jennifer Tilly and Sandra Oh. Then you have the good ones like Kristin Bauer van Straten and Daryl Hannah when she still had some of her looks. Plus Elias Koteas is always fun to watch. This is such a strange group of strippers though. I mean Sandra Oh, Jennifer Tilly, and even Daryl Hannah are just all kind of unusual to be in awe over. I did kind of find it amusing that Daryl Hannah's character is Angel who share the same name as her character in Sense8. The acting is kind of dull which kills the serious topics this deals with. I liked that the owners weren't the typical sleazy meatheads you usually see in these kinds of films. I didn't understand why some characters did what they did. Kristin Bauer was the best thing about the whole movie.

Story: A non-glamorous portrayal of the lives of people who make their living at a strip club. Yeah sure if you say so. Most of them aren't I think only films along the lines of Magic Mike tend to glamorize it. It starts off with a nice amount of drama. Then as it goes on everything just seems a bit silly. It really takes away from the seriousness of the subject matter. The dominatrix scene was just absolutely hilarious! Some subplots here just seem so spur of the moment and end up underdeveloped and out of place. Oh no wonder things didn't really make sense as a whole. It was pretty much all improvised! The way it all ended was just kind of eh.

Directing/Writing: This is my first encounter with Michael Radford and writer David Linter. I've only heard of two other films by Michael Radford. As for David Linter his other films don't sound familiar. What exactly was actually written here though versus what was improvised. I honestly don't know who made it worse.

Final Thought: It wasn't the worst thing I've seen by far. It just should have had more consistency to it. Also the acting should be improved a bit or replace a few people. They really shouldn't have gone the whole improvised route. It may have been much more enjoyable. I would honestly say skip this one just do to it being a bit all over the place and the odd casting choices.