Friday’s openings: Male stripping, religious horror

Above : Salma Hayek and Channing Tatum star in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance.” (PhotoWarner Bros.)

Sometimes filmmakers make the mistake of repeating themselves one too many times. That seems to be the problem with two films that open wide on Friday.

At least that’s what the majority of critics are saying.

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” : The Mike of the film’s title (Channing Tatum) returns the third and, reputedly, final time. Broke, he accepts the offer of a rich woman (Salma Hayek) to reignite his male-stripper career.

Director Steven Soderbergh may have tried to milk just a tad too much out of this three-film franchise. As Variety critic Peter Debruge wrote, “ ‘A woman can have whatever she wants whenever she wants.’ Unless of course that woman is watching ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance,’ in which case, she can only count on getting a fraction of what she wants, wrapped in platitudes about empowerment and consent.”

Meanwhile, Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly offers up a more positive take., describing the film as “An oddly inward and unhurried swan song that still shows flashes of the original’s pelvis-forward bedazzlement.”

“Consecration”: Jena Malone stars as the sister of a man who supposedly committed suicide. When she travels to the remote Scottish monastery in which he lived (and died), she ends up discovering – of course – some dark, religion-base secrets. English-born director Christopher Smith previously directed “Triangle” (2009), “Severance” (2006) and “Black Death” (2010).

Steven Nguyen Scaife of Slant Magazine wrote, “ ‘Consecration’ ends up not just gimmicky but derivative of Christopher Smith’s own prior work.”

As always, you the moviegoer get to cast the final vote – with your wallet.