‘Back on the Strip’ Review: Could This Grizzled Stripper Comedy Be Wesley Snipes’ Big Comeback?

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It would come as no surprise to learn that “Back on the Strip” started out as a “Magic Mike” parody.

I’m not saying that it did. (The main character is named Merlin, not Mike, after all.) But what else could explain the bizarrely literal premise of an ensemble indie comedy in which our hero is a wannabe magician who heads to Vegas hoping to be the next David Copperfield, only to wind up shaking his wand for a Chippendales-style male dance revue instead?

What makes “Strip” so consistently funny for most of its too-long two-hour running time isn’t Merlin’s lame prestidigi-dream (that part feels like co-writers Chris Sanders and Eric Daniel have been watching too many Nickelodeon movies) but the sorry state of his fellow dancers: a has-been crew called the Chocolate Chips.

That fairly original hook allowed the filmmakers to round up an A-list lineup for this C-grade endeavor. The movie features everyone from Tiffany Haddish (as Merlin’s mom) to Wesley Snipes (playing team captain “Mr.