5 Films Movies That Made Us Love Channing Tatum

by Helen Earnshaw | 18 June 2015

Channing Tatum is one of the most popular and in demand actors in Hollywood at the moment and enjoying critical and commercial success along the way.

Jupiter Ascending

He is one of the most versatile actors moving from action to comedy to drama to sci-fi and it looks like he is going to continue mixing and matching his roles and movies going forward.

Jupiter Ascending has just been released on digital download and we take a look at some of the movies that made Tatum a star.

- Step Up (2006)

Hard to believe, but Step Up will be celebrating its tenth anniversary next year and was the breakthrough role for Tatum as he teamed up with Jenna Dewan - who he would go on to date and marry.

Tatum played troublemaker Tyler Gage who receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with an up-and-coming dancer Nora.

Directed by Anne Fletcher, Step Up kicked off the popular dance franchise and went on to enjoy box office success - despite failing to win over the critics.

The movie allowed Tatum to show off his dance moves - he would go on to do so again in Magic Mike - while he and Dewan-Tatum sizzled with some really great chemistry.

While Step Up would not be Tatum's most successful film nor was it critically acclaimed, it was the film that really helped launch his career and make many sit up and take note of him.

- 21 Jump Street (2012)

In 2012 Tatum turned his hand to comedy really for the first time as he teamed up with Jonah Hill for 21 Jump Street, which was based on the popular eighties television show.

Tatum and Hill take on the roles of Jenko and Schmidt, former high school foes turned rookie cop partners who can't catch a break... until they're assigned to pose as students and bust a drug ring. Living like teenagers again, they slip back into their adolescent selves and risk the case - and their friendship.

21 Jump Street was one of the best comedy movies to hit the big screen in 2012 as Tatum and Hill teamed up with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for the first time.

While the action is great and the script is smart, slick and laugh out loud funny, it is this central relationship that really elevates this film to a great comedy.

We all know Hill as a great comedy actor, but Tatum proved that he was more than a match for him as they both shined. Personally, I would like to see Tatum tackle more comedy projects going forward.

The movie topped the U.S. box office and grossed over $200 million at the global box office. The duo reunited last year for 22 Jump Street, which was also a comedy box office smash.

- Magic Mike (2012)

21 Jump Street was not the only box office success of Tatum in 2012, as he led an all-star cast in Magic Mike, which saw Steven Soderbergh back in the director's chair.

Magic Mike was based on Tatum's own life and saw him take on the title role, a male stripper teaches a younger performer Adam (Alex Pettyfer) how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.

Meanwhile, Mike meets Adam's captivating sister, Brooke (Cody Horn). She's definitely someone he'd like to know a lot better, and it looks like he has a chance...until his lifestyle gets in the way.

Magic Mike was one of the surprise sleeper hits of summer 2012 - but it was so much more than just a 'male stripper' movie. In fact, it was a movie that was more engaging and sensitive that perhaps everyone expected. At the same time, Magic Mike is also funny and thoroughly entertaining.

We have seen the 'male stripper' film before but director Soderbergh has taken this familiar story and really turned it into something fresh and new.

Tatum is sexy and cheeky in the lead role of Mike and Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodríguez, and Kevin Nash are also terrific.

- Foxcatcher (2014)

Tatum turned his hand to a more serious drama at the beginning of 2015 as he starred alongside Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher, which was directed by Moneyball filmmaker Bennett Miller.

Based on true events, Foxcatcher tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont and wresting champions Mark and Dave Schultz... a relationship that ends in tragedy.

Miller has already brought us biopic films Capote and Moneyball and he delivered another riveting and chilling real-life crime drama.

Tatum took on the role of Mark Schultz in the film, and showed off a very different side to himself an actor - he really is a terrific dramatic actor and I hope he gets offered more roles like this going forward.

Tatum, Steve Carell, and Mark Ruffalo all shines in the central roles - much like Tatum, we are not use to seeing Carell in a dramatic role such as this.

From start to finish Foxcatcher is a dark and incredibly unsettling film that written and directed will with some terrific performances at its core.

- Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Jupiter Ascending it the only time that we have seen Tatum on the big screen this year as he turned his hand to sci-fi in the latest offering from directors Andy and Lana Wachowski.

From the streets of Chicago to the far-flung galaxies whirling through space, Jupiter Ascending tells the story of Jupiter Jones (Kunis), who was born under a night sky, with signs predicting she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning other people's houses and an endless run of bad breaks.

Only when Caine (Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along - her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.

Jupiter Ascending is another visually stunning film from the Wachowski's as the directing sibling take us on another epic adventure.

Tatum is a terrific action hero and he really does throw himself into this stunt packed role - he and Kunis also make a terrific movie partnership.