I approached the sequel to “Magic Mike” expecting fun, fun, fun and guys with fantastic bodies shaking their junk and booties all over the place. “Magic Mike XXL” has the guys, with fantastic bodies, shaking their all but it isn’t fun, fun, fun but boring, boring, boring!

There are too many unnecessary storylines, written by Reid Carolin, while the direction by Gregory Jacobs and the choreography by Alison Faulk, have the guys in gay bars--but none, of course, are gay--straight bars, a whore house, at a strippers competition and in a Southern woman’s house filled with divorcees and wine.

The first movie was based somewhat on Channing Tatum’s life before he became a star and this is a Hollywood movie which seems to have little basis in truth. The choreography is polished, each of the strippers have a ‘back’ story and at the very beginning Mathew McConaughey’s is explained but he is missed. 

The men besides Tatum are: Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez, Donald Glover, Stephen “tWitch Boss, Michael Strahan, plus a few extras, certainly have the bodies to make guys in the audience make a resolution to hit the gym--right after the July 4th weekend! They also have the dance moves down but the editing, costumes and most of the dances are just ‘off’ a bit enough to make their scenes distracting.

Jada Pinkett Smith takes McConaughey’s place as the emcee of the boy’s show and has a fling with Tatum in the past.  Amber Heard, as Andie MacDowell’s daughter who is the Southern woman hostess and the rare woman who can take XXL Manganiello, is the new love interest for Tatum. Gabriel Iglesias, as the only gay guy with the group not as a dancer until he enters in Carmen Miranda drag to win a contest but is the driver of a truck for the guys and has a bad accident closing his eyes while driving and all the guys are high on ‘molly’. Elizabeth Banks has a few minutes on screen as the competition’s director and as an ex of Jada--don’t ask!

As with most sequels “Magic Mike XXL” doesn’t stack up to the original, is not as sexy though there are more dances and men, and not as much fun--not one man or women in the audience threw dollar bills at the screen!

TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLoyU3xYwbs