Movie Review – Magic Mike XXL (2015)
Starring: Channing Tatum, Juan Piedrahita, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Amber Heard, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez, Gabriel Iglesias, Elizabeth Banks, Andie MacDowell, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Michael Strahan.
Originally perceived as a male version of Showgirls, Magic Mike opened in 2012 and went on to make $162 million. Even as a movie that disguised itself as a drama determined to tell the semi biographical real life story of star/producer Channing Tatum, to me Magic Mike was a long winded, mostly uninteresting film that failed to generate any interesting characters worth caring about. Yes, I am a straight male and not part of the audience Tatum and company are catering to. But even so, if it were armed with a well written script and interesting characters, I would be willing to admit that I enjoyed Magic Mike for what it was if I did. With original director Steven Soderbergh serving as director of photography this time, he gives the controls of the G-string pointed camera to his longtime assistant Gregory Jacobs. Yet even with original writer Reid Carolin writing the script and Tatum returning as both star and producer, Magic Mike XXL is an even more disjointed film than the first. Sometimes this can be a good thing. But in the case of XXL, it is in desperate need of clothes.
Greenlit almost immediately after the first film’s surprise success three years ago, there are two things about Magic Mike XXL that immediately cause a bit of caution. One, it is a fascinating statement on the film’s production that it has taken three years to get done. Never a good sign. And two, that the script they decided to film is the ‘one last job’ outline we have seen in so many bank heist/action films over the years. You would think after all this time they had a better story up their non existing sleeves.
This time having to go without former emcee Matthew McConaughey, new lion Alex Pettyfer, and jealous girlfriend Cody Horn, Magic Mike XXL starts us off with Mike (Tatum) struggling to make it with his own furniture designing company. Tarzan (Nash) brings his pals to surprise him. But they have more in mind than saying hi, as they arrive to try and recruit him for one last hurrah at a stripper convention. It doesn’t take much convincing to get Mike to join, and then the film is off and running. Making stops at a gay club, a drag contest, and the African American themed Savannah club, the boys get to the convention and make revelations about their lives and careers. And then the dystopian ladened world is saved. Not really, but I had to somehow make this paragraph interesting.
With its strictly bare bones script, Magic Mike XXL is at its best when it doesn’t feel written. Scenes of Mike and his buddies expressing opinions and concerns, sometimes mixed with people talking over each other, are fun and full of life. Where the film gets itself in trouble is when it tries to vindicate itself and its characters. Revelations about being creative outside of their careers and monologues about just wanting to be themselves are laughably bad, and any possible dramatic impact the scenes might have otherwise had suffer from off center and jerkier than normal camera work.
With all the things producers didn’t bring back, they work hard to make their franchise’s new faces known. Heard’s brought on as new love interest Zoe, and she repays them by turning the pretty pout into an art form. She also makes for some great window dressing and a distraction from all the sausage on display. Meanwhile, Pinkett Smith gets her hands on the juiciest role she has had in years. Even so, I wanted her off the screen each and every time she was on it. She was a big reason I gave up on Gotham, and her role of Rome, the creator of the Savannah club who is also a former lover of Mike’s, feels more like an extension of her Gotham character Fish Mooney than one that belongs in this film. Though they are supposed to be powerful in conveying a past relationship, Pinket Smith’s scenes with Tatum freeze instead of scorch. With McConaughey absent and their original choice Tobias (Iglesias) having drug problems, the emceeing duties end up in Rome’s incapable hands. It is around this point that the film turned from a half-hearted road picture to a downhill tumble.
Even with a semi funny scene involving Mangiello being high and a fun extended set piece featuring Zoe’s mom (Soderbergh alum MacDowell) and her middle aged pals, Magic Mike XXL is full of emptiness. Hard to say if all the people who were in the first film and absent from this one had anything to do with it. But much like Dumb and Dumber To tried taking characters to new places and failed, I feel Magic Mike XXL accomplished just as much, if not less. Oh, there are plenty of man filled scenes of stripping and choreography for the women and (some) men to enjoy. And you’re not going to see me complain about the one or two films released a year that cater and pander to them. But with pandering plot devices such as stops at gay clubs, the people behind the cameras of Magic Mike XXL seem to be trying their best to gratify those audiences who felt left out last time. Count me out of that loop. All I looked for was a decent story.
5 out of 10