Magic Mike XXL
by Reid Carolin
This is a movie that knows what it is and is content to be so. Light on plot, heavy on abs. Men with shirt allergies and simple goals.
So many abs.
I have not seen the first Magic Mike. I did, however, read the wikipedia plot summary before the movie started. That’s enough. It’s three years after the events of Magic Mike, and Mike has a tidy little business making custom furniture. When the other boys from the Kings of Tampa blow through town on thier way to the Myrtle Beach Male Stripper Convention, they visit, and Mike decides to go along with them on “one last ride.”
Along the way, they meet up with various people who will either help them or need their help. They lose thier MC, so they stop at a club called Domina, run by Jada Pinkett-Smith to ask for her help (and acquire Stephen “Twitch” Boss of So You Think You Can Dance fame and Donald Glover, of Community fame as well). They crash for a night at the elegant Southern mansion of Andie McDowall and a group of middle-aged women.
There’s precious little conflict- will the fro-yo truck make it? (because of course they’re going to Myrtle Beach in a froyo truck, why wouldn’t they?) Will they come up with new routines for the convention, or will they stick with the same old shit from the first movie? Will Big Dick Richie find a woman who isn’t scared off by his enormous…equipment? That’s the level of conflict we’re talking about.
Instead, the heart of the movie is bros being bros. They’re friends! They’re not in competition with each other! They snipe at each other in the way only old friends can.
But there’s another heart (it’s Gallifreyan). That is the idea that everyone deserves the chance to appreciate dudes. During the various dance sequences, women of all shapes and sizes and races are shown as being the focus of the dancer’s attention, and it’s never treated as a joke. This movie knows that the female gaze is a thing (and oh, is it), and everyone indulges in it- not just conventionally hot girls, but everyone. Male entertainers are for everyone! We won’t judge you for indulging in it.
There’s a scene where Donald Glover is talking with Matt Bomer after leaving Domina. Glover sings and raps, and he talks about how all they need to do is ask the women who come to Domina what they want, and then give them that. As Linda Holmes points out, he doesn’t say this with a predatory “ha HA I have figured out women!” gleam. No, he’s almost sad. Sad that in order to just have someone ask “what do you want?” those women have to go somewhere and pay a dude (a hot dude, but still) to do it.
In the genteel Southern mansion of Andie McDowell, the boys flatter these older women who have unsatisfying sex lives- not by fucking them, but by helping them verbalize what they want, and give it to them in a controlled environment (mostly- there was a lot of wine). Jada Pinkett-Smith’s whole shtick is referring to the female audience as queens that deserve to be visually pleasured and worshiped by her dancers. It’s a matriarchy that she runs, but one in which she has respect for her men.
That’s the whole movie. Hot dudes on a road trip, find places to take their shirts off and being hot for the enjoyment of others. There’s dancing. There’s some talking, and then you yell “LESS TALKING MORE DANCING” because that’s what we’re here for.
I have said before that Channing Tatum is a national treasure, and he is. Mike is a perfect dude, as far as I’m concerned. He’s smart and has a business and funny and looks like that and considerate and self-depreciating and looks like that and would pick oreos over red velvet any day. And he looks like that.
AND THE BOY CAN DANCE (he keeps up with Twitch, with if you’re a SYTYCD fan, you know that’s a THING I have just said). Good goddamn.
See? He’s perfect.
Now, sometimes you hear men claiming that they are as oppressed by media depictions of men because we all want them to look like Channing Tatum. While it is true the boy is hot as hell, and I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more Tatum-bods in my day to day life, consider this: in movies, there are waaaaaaaaaaaaay more male roles than female. And female actors are required to lose weight (even if the role doesn’t require it), and the “age of unfuckability” for women is way lower than it is for men (hell, according to Woody Allen, there isn’t an age of unfuckability for men). My point is, there are so many more opportunities for men to see themselves as something other than eye candy, something more than an eight-pack in a thong.
Being objectified in Magic Mike XXL isn’t going to change the fact that eight out of ten Avengers (as of the end of Age of Ultron) are dudes, or that Steve Jobs is getting a biopic, or that all of Ocean’s Eleven are dudes of various body types. Nothing about that is going to change. When we complain about women being objectified, it’s because a) the people doing and orchestrating the objectification are people in power and b) there’s fewer opportunities to see women in other roles.
So is this pure turn-about being fair play? Well, no. The Kings of Tampa are in total control at all times. When you see female strippers in movies, they tend to either be sad, downtrodden, forced to this life of seedy entertainment, or they are just background. The Kings of Tampa are generally cheerful (at least in this movie- the wiki summary of the first seemed to be a little less optomistic), and they don’t need to worry too much about whether women they’re dancing for will attack them and make things go further than they want. The movie itself is a fantasy, because I don’t believe this is an accurate view of male entertainment. But that’s okay, I’m here for the fantasy.
So let’s end with talking about these fine specimens of dudeness. I’ve talked about the perfection of Channing Tatum, but really, all of the dudes here are pretty. We have Matt Bomer
Joe Manganiello
Kevin Nash
Adam Rodriguez
Donald Glover
And Twitch
This film is currently in theaters and you can find tickets (US) at Fandango and Moviefone.
Great review RHG! Did you see Channing ( I love that name) with Fallon on “The Tonight Show”? They do the funniest bit with “Kid Scripts”.
Channing isn’t even my type, physically. I found his thick neck so annoying. He looks like your average dudebro moviestar, I told myself.
But.
But he’s so charming! There’s something so nice and disarming about him. I eventually fell for him hard after watching The Eagle, and also someone’s Channing fanvid on LJ that featured cats and dancing and feels and abs.
I went with a group of women opening night (oh yes we did!) and we all agreed–even my friend who was practically peeing her pants with anticipation–that the movie was way too slow and hella flabby. The pacing, not the abs! Never the abs!
The female-positive themes were righteous, but the self-indulgent script didn’t do the film any favors. It seemed that there was a lot of improv in the serious hopes-and-dreams-for-the-future scenes, which was fine, but that could have been edited to be way tighter. Yes, my inner author goddess was mentally editing the movie. I cannot turn her off.
We also agreed that there was something missing in the dance sequences because the guys never all danced together, like in the first movie. As a Matt Bomer fan, I was thrilled to see more of him (so to speak) than the minor role he had in the first movie.
I guess I’d reluctantly give it a C+.
TWITCH!!!!!!!!!!
Excuse me?? “on thier way” ??????
Gotta tell you… I found Magic Mike so inexpressibly boring that there is no way I will sit through the sequel, hot guys or not. I require some sort of an interesting story to hang the hotness on.
“But that’s okay, I’m here for the fantasy.”
I think you summed it up right there. The first movie was this (pretty good, IMO) cautionary tale about being a young adult in the 21st century (we’re told we can be anything, but sometimes we wind up being roofers or strippers). I thought the second instalment was this really interesting look at what men think women want, at least as a fantasy. MM XXL isn’t very different from the books reviewed on this site where the billionaire CEO falls into insta-love with his mousey secretary, or where the tortured Navy SEAL with PTSD is miraculously cured with some sexy times with his childhood sweetheart. It’s a fantasy, and if you don’t think about it and just let it happen, I thought it was pretty thrilling, without sinking into boring raunchy bro-comedy tropes.
I have no intention of giving even the slightest percentage of a damn about the plot that MM XXL may or may not have. Because TWITCH. And, okay, Channing. The boy can dance.
I saw MMXXL today (one of two men in the theater, and the only one not accompanied by a female), and I thought it was decent but not quite as good as the first movie. The first movie combined both the male dance/strip routines with general thoughts about the life of a male entertainer and what’s beyond it. This one is pretty much a straight-up road trip for one final show (unless there’s a Part 3), and while a few people wonder what they’ll do after their big finale, it’s never seriously considered or explored. This isn’t about the ups and downs of beign a stripper; it’s more the fun of hanging with one’s best buds.
You know, I wasn’t that interested in seeing this – I got the impression from the shorts that it was mainly about “hanging out with your best buds”…
but then…
TWITCH!
So I’m in.
I’m glad to hear that this movie is more woman-positive! The “lol fat woman” scene in the first one really upset me, because there was zero reason for it.
I watched the first recently and I liked the dancing and the Channing-being-sweet, but that was… it. I definitely didn’t think it was all that sexy, but I guess because expecting strippers I was thinking they’d do more than wear full pants the whole time — meanwhile there are a whole lot of topless women. Not that I don’t enjoy topless women, but again, felt like “throwing the boyfriend a bone, wink” and that the whole movie was very tone-deaf if it was meant to appeal to women.
OK, I’m in! I have recently watched 3 different movies reviewed by the Bitches and loved them all (Tai Chi Zero, Jupiter Ascending, and Spy, so good!), so you guys have earned my trust. Plus, I do think Tatum is adorable.
My daughter and her friends went opening night to see it at the Alamo Drafthouse – the “Hootin’ and Hollerin'” version. And yes, apparently everyone hooted and hollered a lot. A whole theater packed with yelling women. How much fun is that?
I’m going to need a link to this fan video of Channing Tatum with cats. For science.
I could look at Matt for a nice long while. Yes, I truly could. Mmmm.
Props, RHG, for the clever Dr. Who reference in a movie review about male strippers.
I thought the movie was exactly what it said it was going to be. But my biggest take away was that I thought it needed a female director. If they are going for the female audience, which they obviously are, why wasn’t there a director that could express the female gaze? Yes the dancing was great technically, but it wasn’t all that sexy, a little raunchy maybe but not particularly hot. The sexiest part of the movie was Jada Pinkett- Smith. Also, why was Amber Heard even in this?
That convenience store Joe “Hot as *&^%^% even in ratty tank top” was in? I go in there all the time. A friend of mine who works across the street had it staked out but couldn’t get close enough to get pictures while they were filming.
I really appreciate reading your take on the “objectification” in this movie. Just like I’ve been hearing a lot of “But that’s racist against white people!” and “It feels like straight white men are being pushed out!” the past few weeks, it’s like I am definitely OH HONEY NO YOU ARE WRONG but don’t always have the argument to back it up in the moment. It’s really helpful to read what you’ve written and tuck it away for next time.
I adore Joe Mangianello, but the first film was SO boring I fell asleep and only woke up when one of my friends poked me to whisper “The wolf is back!”
I just…Tatum has no acting power. He’s fine for fluff pieces like this, or badly written space operas like Jupiter Ascending, but a good actor he is not.
I will watch MMXXL when it’s on Netflix. Also, the Latin joke there is amusing, which might be the only interesting thing about this whole show.
I am so torn. Nothing about this movie tempted me, until I saw Twitch talking about it on SYTYCD and I maybe swooned a little. If the dancing isn’t that sexy, though….augh, I just don’t know, I am not generally a practioner of the female gaze, so….Hrm…