Magic Mike XXL 2015

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: If you're not a fireman or a police officer or a cowboy beneath those breakaway pants, then who are you, really? This is the central question of Magic Mike XXL. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: As I sat there laughing, I realized I wasn't only entertained. I was moved and exhilarated. Not since the days of peak Travolta and Dirty Dancing has a film so perfectly nailed something essential about movie lust Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Magic Mike XXL" has a plot skimpier than the jockstraps worn by its male strippers with hearts of gold. But not to worry. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Except for the admirable testosterone on display that represents hours in the gym instead of the acting class, the rest of Magic Mike XXL is seriously stupid. Read more

Katie Rife, AV Club: Magic Mike XXL is a piece of arm candy, as shallow as a mud puddle and just as bright. But that doesn't mean it isn't fun to hang out with. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: To the film's credit, it knows it's ridiculous. It's aiming for ridiculous, and it hits the mark as precisely as the strippers groove half-naked to their beats. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Matthew McConaughey has wisely opted out of the sequel - his character, stripper-impresario Dallas, has either passed on or moved overseas, it's not entirely clear - and with him goes much of the first film's gonzo spark. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The movie is all tease and no release. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This time the jokes are heavier, more on-the-nose, though a surprising percentage of them work anyway. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Magic Mike XXL targets its audience as relentlessly as a personal trainer targets abs. This sequel to "Magic Mike" mostly dispenses with plot in order to serve up what it does best: showcase male stripper gyrations. Read more

Preston Jones, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Delivered with all the subtlety of a crotch to the face, Magic Mike XXL is one of the most cynical, shallow sequels in recent memory. Read more

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: Supporting players including Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie MacDowell, and Elizabeth Banks have good fun with underwritten roles, and the movie's take on desire is admirably democratic (Sex: it's not just for hot millenials!). Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: Surely "XXL" in the title wasn't meant to indicate the length of the movie, but it rather feels like it. Sometimes a medium is a better fit. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Magic Mike XXL is ridiculously entertaining. Read more

Rebecca Keegan, Los Angeles Times: Watching it was like opening the wrong gift -- that's not my size, and I don't like blue, but thank you, Warner Bros., for even bothering to shop for me. Most of the other studios forgot my birthday. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: A topless, sticky-wet movie where almost no one is having sex. The boys aren't even grown up enough to say the word, preferring to ask, "Did you bangy?" Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: What's particularly energizing about "Magic Mike XXL" is how it exuberantly celebrates sexuality, and does so unabashedly and unapologetically. It's something you don't often see in mainstream films. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: When you use "XXL" in the title of a movie about male strippers, certain promises are made. But if Magic Mike XXL is bulging with anything, it's inane conversation. Read more

Esther Breger, The New Republic: The movie is capably directed by Gregory Jacobs, Soderbergh's longtime producer and assistant director, who lovingly captures sweaty bodies and glistening beaches and retains the original's loose, relaxed style. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: This rambling, plotless sequel might have passed muster with more dancing. The stilted dialogue is no substitute. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A guiltlessly dumb movie that mostly coasts by on pecs appeal, hip-hop beats and pelvic thrusts. Lots of pelvic thrusts. Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: The movie ... is so infectiously, brazenly pleased about literally everything that happens in it that it's hard not to leave in the same frame of mind. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Sorry, ladies, but the biggest bulge in "Magic Mike XXL" is the one in the movie's finely developed heart muscle. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Rather than trying to replay the first episode and expand on its themes, this installment tosses it all aside like a handyman's tool belt and throws itself headlong into the intoxicating carnality of what is demurely called "male entertainment." Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Too many elements that made the first film an enjoyable experience are missing. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: Tatum has come a long way since his "Step Up" days (he was excellent in last year's "Foxcatcher"), but he makes a number of unfortunate choices here. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Magic Mike XXL delivers rowdy, raunchy fun, but without McConaughey, it's a long way from "awright, awright, awright." Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This isn't a perfect movie, but it might be the perfect summer movie for 2015 ... Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Tatum's dancing (at one point, he exits a room doing a head roll and a suave little twirl) keeps things bright. Somebody needs to cast this guy in a musical - he'd be magic. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: This sequel goes beyond disappointment into a sublime realm of embarrassment that's beyond and yet better than merely bad, because it fascinates: What on Earth were they thinking? Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: By trying to appeal to young women, middle-aged moms, gay men and spring-break bros at the same time, the movie spreads itself too thin, filling time better spent on manly moves with too much talk and obvious demographic pandering. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: With stingy portions and plenty of filler, "Magic Mike XXL" is the worst sausage party ever. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: If anything, better than its predecessor: looser, funnier, stranger, and vastly more subversive, a buddy road comedy that unexpectedly evolves into a celebration of female desire. Read more

Stacey May Fowles, Globe and Mail: Magic Mike XXL is much more meditative than your average buddy comedy, and the unscripted feel gives the cast the freedom to exploit their subtle comedic talents. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: If the suggestive use of spray cream whips you into a froth, boy, do these lads have a movie for you. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Too often this movie feels like an overlong finale episode of a long-running TV series, one that assumes that we're really invested in these characters and their desire to hang up their thongs after putting on one last great showcase. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Tatum is once again the main attraction, back with his Oscar-worthy dry hump (his acting's not bad either). Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Sure, this is a dumb sequel and everyone's on one level slumming. But they're slumming in style. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "What do women want?" was a question that even confounded Freud. Despite its admirable intentions, "Magic Mike XXL" hasn't got a clue, either. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: However discursive-and repetitive-the movie may be, it delivers the fantasy goods of formidable male bodies in motion, and ups the fantasy ante by making the men as sensitive, self-doubting and nurturing as they are virile. Read more