Critics say "Magic Mike XXL" is a casual sexy success
In 2012, Steven Soderbergh sent out an army of dancing hunks who won the war on waist-down boredom with "Magic Mike" starring Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey.
Stepping into Soderbergh's shoes for the reboot is director Gregory Jacobs, who brings Tatum's Mike Lane back to the stage for "Magic Mike XXL" from the "better life" he had escaped to in the first movie.
Reviewers can't seem to deny the fun of "Magic Mike XXL" nor the ability of the cast -- sans McConaughey but plus Joe Manganiello -- to show us what sexy dancing really means. However, the highly anticipated, and promoted, sequel might not carry forward the more serious themes or melancholy motif that gave the original "Magic Mike" its unexpected depth.
But Us Weekly's Mara Reinstein advises not to forgo the guaranteed good time:
"Oh, yes, this follow-up film about a pack of genetically blessed, oiled-up male strippers is both light on its feet and a dazzling feat of sexy entertainment. It's also loaded with more good times than the last bachelorette party you pretended to have fun at while you secretly longed to be home bingeing 'Orange Is the New Black.'"
Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips thinks this version has enough in the pants but less in the plot:
"Most sequels -- most commercial films, period -- rely on overt conflict and ginned-up crises to push the story forward. 'Magic Mike XXL' goes the other way. It strips down to its narrative skivvies and says, in effect: Let's not kid ourselves. You're not here, with your wad of singles in hand, to see a movie about the dark night of Magic Mike's soul. The script by Reid Carolin is hilariously casual in its plotting. It's an amiably ramshackle road-trip movie, with the guys reuniting because it feels so good and because there's a male stripper convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C."
Forbes' Mark Hughs says this sequel is kind of a regression, and undoes some of Mike's emotional growth:
"This feels less like a sequel and more like a prequel, set in a world where Mike is new to this gig and everything seems more like an exciting dream where nobody takes life too seriously and none of the pitfalls of the lifestyle have lasting consequences.
This time around, instead of the drug abuse being portrayed as an unhealthy part of the lifestyle and something that in fact held a lot of the entertainers back, it is funny and goofy even when it actually causes harm and hurts someone (which is likewise played off as a joke the entire time, even in the hospital). Promiscuity and all-night partying is glamorized rather than shown as simultaneously tempting yet empty. All of the progress Mike made in the first film, and all of the honest depictions of the ups and downs of his life as a stripper, seem to have been set aside in favor of zeroing in on the pure entertainment factor instead."
The Verge's Emily Yoshida has no complaints for this nonchalant success of a sequel:
"The low stakes, along with the often too-relaxed editing sometimes sacrifices momentum, but it also makes for an incredibly comfortable viewing experience; I found myself willing to hang with the dudes for as long as the film continued unspooling. And if a popular demand sequel is essentially just an excuse to spend more time with characters we enjoyed the first time around, isn't that a success?"
Tell us: Are you going to see "Magic Mike XXL"?