Magic Mike XXL

(MA15+) ★★★

Director: Gregory Jacobs.

Cast: Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodríguez, Gabriel Iglesias, Andie MacDowell, Amber Heard, Donald Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Elizabeth Banks.

The film's budget did not extend to shirts.

ON the surface, Magic Mike was billed as a ladies-only adventure that was all about Channing Tatum’s abs and Matthew McConaughey’s butt cheeks.

The surprising thing is that it was something more. Yes, it was predictable and a little thin and packed with men tearing off their clothes, but it was also funny, wonderfully shot, and featured a collection of interesting characters, with Tatum and McConaughey turning in career-best performances (which they have since surpassed).

Second time around, the story is even thinner – it’s barely an L, let alone an XXL. Dallas and The Kid have taken up a business offer in Macau (an excuse to write McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer out because they didn’t want to do a sequel), leaving the remainder of The Kings Of Tampa strippers high and dry.

Mike (Tatum), who has been out of the stripping game for a few years, reconnects with the Kings and decides to join them on one last road trip to a strippers’ convention before they all hang up their leopard-print g-strings for good.

Despite the slightness of story, Magic Mike XXL works as a fun road-trip movie because the characters are good value and the naturalistic dialogue carries plenty of laughs.

The film recaptures the upbeat vibe of the previous one’s best bits, dispensing with the “drugs are bad, stripping is bad” moralising that darkened it and focusing on keeping it light – no punches are packed, and no messages are driven home.

Each of the characters has their moment and their issues, mostly based around what to do with their lives after stripping, but it’s never heavy and just ensures the film is engaging. Without characters to empathise and laugh with (and at), Magic Mike XXL would be a total waste of time.

It’s the laughs that are key though. The finale routines are pretty funny, and Manganiello’s Richie gets a larger role, which helps fill the void left by McConaughey’s absence. A sequence where he attempts to get a service station attendant to smile is a hilarious highlight.

The choreography is excellent once again, and the addition of Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino is welcome, plus Tatum’s chemistry with Amber Heard is a million times better than what he shared with Cody Horn in the first film.

The biggest flaw lies in the length – maybe Magic Mike XL would have sufficed. A detour through a club Mike used to dance in drags on and on, packing in a lot of “male entertainment” routines and slowing proceedings down considerably.

Matched with the general thinness of the story, such delays are frustrating. The road trip’s goal of reaching a stripper’s convention of Myrtle Beach seems to take forever and then is dealt with fleetingly.

Fans of the original will come for the stripping, but stay for the laughs in this solid sequel.