Magic Mike XXL Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Magic Mike XXL Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf October 9, 2015

Released in the summer of 2012, “Magic Mike” became a phenomenon. A movie about male strippers caught up in emotional turmoil and stunted creative expression, the picture was instead largely accepted as a celebration of beefcake, with director Steven Soderbergh’s indie film mope and melodrama mostly ignored by the feature’s target demographic. “Magic Mike XXL” is the sequel, arriving with full awareness of what audiences didn’t care for the first time around. Hindsight is strong with this one, losing unwelcome actors and, well, a story, to fashion a playground for the fit stars of the show. Fans of stripping routines and shirtlessness will surely feel sated by “Magic Mike XXL.” Those in the mood for substance and measured dialogue should hunt for more inspired exploitation elsewhere.

After leaving his stripper brothers three years ago to pursue a dream of furniture construction, Mike (Channing Tatum) is feeling the intensity of owning his own business, trying to make financials work for his one employee, also struggling with his damaged love life. Tricked into a meeting with his former co-workers, Mike is welcomed back into the gang, who want to tour through the south on their way to a stripper convention in South Carolina. Reuniting with Ken (Matt Bomer), Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Tarzan (Kevin Nash), Tobias (Gabriel Iglesias), and meeting Tito (Adam Rodriguez), Mike is ready to sample the sweet life once again. However, problems arise as soon as the group hits the road, with Mike meeting an interested woman in photographer Zoe (Amber Heard), and forced to return to Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith), his former boss and a woman in possession of the charm necessary to MC their supershow in Myrtle Beach.

There are plenty of changes to keep “Magic Mike XXL” alert, with original stars Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, and Alex Pettyfer written out of the sequel, finding excuses for their absence short and sweet. Also abandoning his post is Soderbergh, who passes the directorial reins to longtime collaborator Gregory Jacobs while taking on cinematography duties, guaranteeing that the follow-up will at least look like the earlier picture. For screenwriter Reid Carolin, the mission of sequelization involves a brightening of the franchise, with Mike’s droopy demeanor immediately shed, losing the tortured artist routine to play up his everyday bro attitude. In fact, the script doesn’t really go near drama, fearful of losing energy between dance sequences, which ultimately tarnished the “Magic Mike” viewing experience. Now the thonged superfriends are on a road trip, leaving high jinks the priority, not wounded hearts.

What hasn’t been altered for the sequel is the picture’s causal atmosphere of conversation and confrontation. It’s a Soderbergh specialty, and Jacobs sustains the improvisational mood, spending a punishing amount of screen time on inane banter that’s shapeless and useless. There’s really isn’t dialogue in “Magic Mike XXL,” just the illusion of it, rendering character interactions impotent. The production attempts to create a joyous celebration of the strippers at play, but to hear them converse with one another or their targets of seduction is torture, leaving “Magic Mike XXL” primarily a visual event, keeping Soderbergh busy with the feature’s insanely detailed use of color and lighting.

Carolin isn’t much on characterization as well, fumbling a plan to pair Mike up with Zoe, who remains a cipher during her limited screentime. For example, the only thing we ever get to know about the woman is her love of cake, and that’s not enough to generate heat. Misadventures dominate the feature (which includes a knowing nod to the other male stripper movie, “A Night in Heaven”), watching the boys seduce older ladies at a party hosted by Zoe’s mother (Andie MacDowell), prove their stuff at Rome’s household club, and get high on ecstasy, prompting the gang to dare Richie to shed his clothes inside a convenience store to shake a smile out of a humorless clerk. The production seems intent on apologizing for the listless original, instructing the guys to play the picture like a “Bachelor Party” sequel, overcompensating as an offering of penance.

Magic Mike XXL Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (2.39:1 aspect ratio) presentation for "Magic Mike XXL" retains the picture's highly digital look, offering a clean, crisp viewing experience that's primarily concentrated on lighting. Colors are exceptional and stable, and while costuming and locations provide varied visuals, hues are most pronounced during dancing sequences, where concert lighting takes over and floods the frame with blazing reds and blues. Skintones are natural. Detail is encouraging overall, and while the movie is wary of close-ups, facial textures are still open for inspection here, along with set decoration. And yes, the bodily definition is preserved in full. Delineation is challenged at times with moody visuals that favor shadow play. Solidification is spotted at times, but low-lit adventures are easy to follow.

Magic Mike XXL Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Welcoming listeners into the cacophony of clubs and a stripper convention, the 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix delivers a pleasingly rumbly event. Soundtrack selections are the priority, with bass-heavy tunes delivering a bounce to the movie that supports the visuals, while instrumentation is crisp and tight. Also impressive is the track's sense of room depth, with welcome echo and expanse pushed into the surrounds, pulling outsiders into the party. Dialogue exchanges are sharp and true, never threatened by bolder activity, even when it competes with nightlife chaos. Atmospherics provide a nice read of beach life and convention bustle, with distances tastefully positioned.

Magic Mike XXL Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "The Moves of 'Magic Mike XXL'" (8:35, HD) discusses the many dancing moods of the movie with choreographer Alison Faulk and assistant choreographer Teresa Espinosa, who worked intimately with the cast to perfect routines that felt fresh for the sequel and thematically tied to characterization. Rehearsal footage is included, along with on-set visits to capture the vibe of the room. Interviews with cast and crew fill out the featurette.

• "Extended Malik Dance Scene" (3:42, HD) re-enters Rome's palace of sin to showcase a little extra bumping and grinding in front of screaming women.

• "Georgia" (2:09, HD) returns to the cast and crew, who extol the virtues of working in the state, which acted as home base for most sequences. It's a brief, celebratory featurette, but it does offer a little time with Steven Soderbergh (making a rare on-camera appearance), who discusses his history with Georgia and his appreciation for the local film commission.

• A Theatrical Trailer has not been included.

Magic Mike XXL Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bass-heavy hip-hop throbs, carefully shaved and sculpted bodies writhe, and dollar bills litter almost every scene. "Magic Mike XXL" eventually does away with forgettable asides and indulges itself in full for the grand finale, where each member of the squad is permitted a chance to shine during a convention performance. Ideally, the sequel should've began here and never stepped outside, gift-wrapping an exposed buttock present for disc-buyers, with fans clearly more interested in hunky men dancing than hunky men struggling with banal small talk. "Magic Mike XXL" is an improvement over the original, but not by much, still showing signs of distress when it comes to the management of sleaze and sincerity.