Magic Mike XXL

They should have made the writer of the movie work on his screenwriting skills as much as Channing Tatum works on his abs.

Channing Tatum is back as Mike – the former male stripper who is struggling to make a huge success out of his custom furniture building company. During a time in his life when he is down and out, his stripper buddies call him up and make him an offer he can’t refuse.

The former Kings of Tampa (or whatever their name was) are making one last appearance together at a massive male stripper convention in Myrtle Beach, and the guys want Mike to join them on stage for the first time in three years. Of course, he does because we wouldn’t have a movie if he was responsible and focused on his business, employees and customers (is this why the business is struggling?).

Magic Mike XXL is a pointless road trip movie put together with no focus. The audience gets a couple of funny scenes when the ensemble shows some true camaraderie, but those moments are few and far in between as the creative team shows us they made Magic Mike XXL to cash in on those who just want to watch Tatum and his compadres shake their moneymakers.

In what I think is supposed to be the plot, director Gregory Jacobs and writer Reid Carolin have the guys traveling up the coast moving from goofy situation to dance scene to goofy situation to dance scene. I guess the stripper crew is supposed to be some sort of merry traveling band of mirthmakers dedicated to healing the souls of brokenhearted women from Florida to Georgia to South Carolina (or maybe they just want to be heating up the ladies pants).

However, Magic Mike XXL walks some fine line between being a serious movie and a parody of what we expect it to be. The characters are boring and idiotic as Carolin tries to present reasons we should be pulling for these underdogs trying to use their time as male entertainers to advance their true life’s dreams. Yet, these characters show the audience time and time again why those dreams will fail. Is this supposed to be tragic? Comical? All of the above? The tone is never clear.

Even the dialogue between Tatum and the gang sounds made up and labored, as if the entire movie was shot on the fly with no script and a gaggle of actors and crew enjoying some free time in the sun, or on the beach, or at a fancy house.

If you want to see guys dancing in various stages of undress, they have clubs for stuff like that in your city, or start exploring the internet. You don’t have to waste 12 bucks and 2 hours of your life on a vacuous film.

Magic Mike XXL is rated R for strong sexual content, pervasive language, some nudity and drug use.