‘Magic Mike’ stars on stripping sequel + singing!

And 22 Jump Street took a dangerously meta-route by skewering sequel (and corporate) culture at large.

As mentioned off the top, there is some ample bro-bonding in between all this women-pleasing, though even it mostly just serves to remind how adorable and daffy these well-oiled pleasure machines really are – even the spots of drug use here are just a fun tiny escape fantasy, a wacky road trip side adventure carrying none of the dark tinges they did in the first. “Magic Mike,” the surprise 2012 hit based on Tatum’s experiences, ended with Mike disillusioned with his shallow life of male entertaining and ready to move on from easy money and the adulation of lovely women to be with a steady girlfriend and start a career as a contractor. Grape jelly, double portion, more than you think should actually fit on a piece of white bread. The women – the sober ones, at least – sized them up as worthless, pressing them to put on trousers and get real jobs. That might not sound as foolproof as Viagra, but between these two franchises, Tatum has proven that he has something fresh and vital to inject into sequels. A road trip filled with jocular banter, whey-smoothie chugging and twitchy molly tripping ensues. McConaughey’s preening and the earlier film’s Alex Pettyfer aren’t missed at all. Those excuses aren’t novel, but it does not matter.

Andie MacDowell plays the most talkative and sexually adventurous of that bunch, and her delivery of the word “day-um” when she unzips Richie’s vest is one of the funniest moments in “Magic Mike XXL”. But another of the film’s key emotional threads revolves around Manganiello’s character having a penis so large women don’t want to have sex with him. When he finds out the old gang is heading up to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for a stripper convention, he does not need much persuading to join in. Coming from Florida that means a tour of Southern debutantes and delinquents, before the big show. Fortunately for fans of Magic Mike, this follow-up delivers on all counts without losing any of its predecessor’s sweaty, bronzed charm. XXL is leaner than it’s moniker in story, but bigger in its presentation.

Though a lot of Magic Mike XXL is spent procuring laughs, it also wants to convey a loftier, more slyly feminist message. To give away their moves would be a disservice. Tito (Adam Rodriguez) wants to open an artisanal frozen-yogurt truck; Tarzan (Kevin Nash) plans to be an artist; and Ken (Matt Bomer), now a Reiki healer given to meditation and sage-burning rituals, will presumably continue on his well-chiseled path to enlightenment. Unfortunately, numerous film’s best moments have already been revealed in the trailers, including Mike’s “Footloose“-esque welding scene and a cute tiny twirl he does after introducing himself to a woman named Zoe (Amber Heard), who has a tendency to pop up in the most random of places””. Nevertheless, if ever there was a time for a low grossing Fourth of July victor, it would be after Jurassic World has broken record after record and after Inside Out had the biggest opening ever for a completely original film. “Magic Mike XXL” tweaks Tatum’s newfound respectability. XXL trades her for female leads who are more game to get in on the action, as Tatum encounters sassy photographer Amber Heard – herself no stranger to the pole – and former flame Jada Pinkett Smith, who runs a sexy club offering attentive, shirtless men to the African-American sorority girls and bachelorette parties who can’t get enough.

Underneath his suit of meat and muscles, Richie is a hopeless romantic who seeks a woman who can accommodate his manhood. Their partnered routine isn’t a plot mechanism of XXL-no, this film is about seduction via performance, and allowing each performer to have one take-home gem.

Director Gregory Jacobs picks up the reins from the previous film’s Steven Soderbergh (Jacobs has been Soderbergh’s assistant director for over 20 years), and knows how to bring out everyone’s strengths.