Magic Mike XXL (2015) - Lots of fun and skin but still no gay as Mike goes to the convention

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+ Best Dance Movie of the Year
+ Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year (Donald Glover)

The five recurring stars of Gregory Jacobs' Magic Mike XXL

So this is gonna sound silly... Here's a plot outline for Magic Mike XXL:

Mike is trying to run his carpenter business, but when he hears the song he used to dance for, he decides it's time to go with the decimated 'Kings of Tampa' on a trip to make his dent at the stripper convention in Florida.

No doubt XXL is a worthy follow-up to Steven Soderbergh's stripper hit Magic Mike (2012). - Audiences love it, and it is an extremely light, good time at any cinema this overheated summer. The inferences coming are minor, - I certainly didn't miss either Matthew McConaughey or Alex Pettyfer from the previous film, - and I am in fact very close to awarding the film its fourth ♥.
Soderbergh serves only as cinematographer and editor of XXL, as he has left the director's chair for his long-time first assistant director Gregory Jacobs (Wind Chill (2007)). Reid Carolin (Magic Mike) is back as writer and producer, and the tone is similar to the first film, though the hint of seriousness in the first film, - McConaughey's douchey character, the drug issue theme, - is totally gone in XXL. This Magic Mike is pretty much all fun and games, - and some spectacular male stripping!
- What's not to love?

Young Donald Glover is my favorite added value in Gregory Jacobs' Magic Mike XXL - look out for him in the future!

A rundown of the most enjoyable actors in the new movie:
Channing Tatum (Jupiter Ascending (2015)) is back in top shape and can still move like you wouldn't believe. Joe Manganiello (Sabotage (2014)) gets a more prominent part in the new film; he is a welcome enhancement, funny and sexy. Adam Rodriguez (About Last Night (2014)) is also a looker, and his final performance is probably the best of all of them. Of fresh faces, we get Stephen 'tWitch' Boss (Step Up 4: Miami Heat (2012)), an amazing dancer giving another of the film's best dances in the club owned (in the film) by Jada Pinkett Smith (The Nutty Professor (1996)), who acts out her cool character with flair and gusto aplenty. Andie McDowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)) is another stop on the way for the guys; she has a memorable role, - and still looks great, - in XXL. Finally there's Donald Glover (Community (2009-14)), my favorite addition, a very promising young actor.
OK so here are the small problems with Jacobs' male stripper romp: First of all, the team behind it have teased that the sequel would have something in it especially for the gay audiences, which, besides a short stop at a drag bar in the beginning, it really doesn't have at all. - Major disappointment.
Secondly, Matt Bomer's (The Normal Heart (2014)) character is really pissed at Tatum's for something that is never really clear. Perhaps those two should have had the gay storyline that apparently couldn't be apart of something as pristine as the sequel to a movie about male strippers... - Let me know your opinion in a comment, if you have one.
Lastly, the skimpy plot grinds around in at least two clichés: The guys visit the black strip club, which is a paradise of lush, no-holds-barred passion; then they visit a house full of middle-aged, wealthy, white women, who are (of course) sexually neglected and a bit sad.
But there's still some fun characters, game actors, many amusing scenes and crazy male stripping, which makes up a really big chunk of the film, just as it should be.

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Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male stripper romp

Stephen 'tWitch' Boss lets you enjoy his formidable body and moves in Gregory Jacobs' Magic Mike XXL

Adam Rodriguez is back for Gregory Jacobs' Magic Mike XXL

Here's the awesome trailer for the movie -- now go and have an awesome time at the movies with Magic Mike XXL

Cost: 14.8 mil. $
Box office: 21.3 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[XXL only opened July 1st, and so the first weekend's gross is not even in yet, but it looks like a sure bet that it's gonna make a lot of dough, especially because it has a surprisingly low reported cost. - Probably key people in and behind it are taking profit percentages instead of salaries.]

What do you think of Magic Mike XXL?

Sabotage (2014) or, Hardcore Badasses!

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Arnold Schwarzenegger and his band of roughnecks meet you heavily armed in David Ayer's Sabotage

A DEA operations group 'lose' 10 mil. $ at a big explosion of drug cash money and are then investigated for months. When they are finally activated again, they begin dying one by one.

Sabotage is a hardboiled, violent, extremely bloody revenge action-thriller that also involves drugs and f-bombs and other cuss-words dropped left and right continuously. - It won't appeal to all, for sure.
But it has good characters; not least the two female ones: Olivia Williams (Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)) looks to be enjoying her time playing a radically different, strong, contemporary cop character, and Mireille Enos (The Killing (2011-14)) reminded me of a young, red-headed, white Grace Jones, (which is a compliment in the context.) They are good, and so are Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike (2012)), Sam Worthington (Avatar (2009)) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Last Stand (2013)) as the natural center of the movie, group leader Breacher.
Sabotage features cool cars and weapons and a nightmarish train-scene. It all leads forward with building tension to SPOILER a Mexican finale that is a little incongruent to the rest of the film, but still strangely enjoyable, in which Arnie comes out as the avenger from the North, good as always.
It is directed by David Ayer (End of Watch (2012)), who is also seeing the release of his huge WWII tank movie Fury in 2014. 

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Olivia Williams wears cool shades, looks cools and plays well in David Ayer's Sabotage

Thai poster with a stone-set Arnold for David Ayer's Sabotage

Watch an awesome trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 17.5 mil. $
= Big flop
[Sabotage was the worst opening for an Arnold-starring film in over 30 years (just 5.3 mil. $ US opening weekend) and only got to 10.5 mil. $ in total American gross, which is terrible. The rest of the world didn't help Sabotage much, which didn't even have a theatrical premiere in several countries like Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Canada and Hungary. It got bad reviews generally, but apart from that I cannot explain its lamentable result. Younger male action-fans are obviously not a dependable segment anymore, (and that's really sad.)]

What do you think of Sabotage?
Why do you think it flopped so badly?

Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp

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+ Best Dance Movie of the Year

Please note that Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike isn't a film about The Village People, - as this poster may make some think, - but instead about a group of male strippers in Tampa, Florida

Mike is a stripper in Tampa, Florida, where he meets young Adam on a construction day job and later introduces him to the colorful, festive, lucrative world of male-stripping.

Magic Mike is the guilty pleasure movie based on its title star Channing Tatum's (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)) own experiences as a young stripper in Tampa. The film is half-way built on its more or less irresistible (depending on your sexual preferences) gimmick of ... hot men stripping!
But around this the film's spectacle (the stripping) is wrapped a good story of a young man finding out a bit more about himself, and how the good life can be, which slowly moves forward to the ending of the film, - which is also terrific.
Magic Mike features some good acts, but none can compete with Tatum's own, divinely wiggling talent in the male stripping dance discipline; Tatum has what will always remain a defining, classic role for his career here. Matthew McConaughey (Mud (2012)) gets another wild, fleshy (in more than one sense) part here, and he is worth both good looks and more than a good laugh as the strip group leader. Young Alex Pettyfer (The Butler (2013)) hits all the right notes as the innocuous Adam 'The Kid', as does Cody Horn (End of Watch (2012)) as his caring sister, whom Mike warms up to, despite her protective step-mothering her brother.
The film is directed by great director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich (2000)), who is his own director of photography here as usual, and his easy-going camera and low key lighting is masterful. He's obviously having a great, relaxed, fun time with this group of easy-going, happy-go-lucky go-getters here, and the result is hugely enjoyable.
Reid Carolin (Magic Mike XXX (2015)) wrote the script.

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Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark 

Watch the awesome trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 167.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Mike was first supposed to be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive (2011)), Tatum's first choice, but it fell apart, and Soderbergh seems a better fit anyhow. The film became a sensation especially in the States with a 39.1 mil. opening weekend behind Ted (2012). Big especially with women and gays, - which the PR-department for the film targeted at them with different campaigns, - Mike made its budget back 28 times, 68 % of it from North America. The inevitable sequel, Magic Mike XXL (2015) is filming at the moment and eagerly anticipated by Film Excess.]

What do you think of Magic Mike?