Magic Mike’s cast provide visual feast

Published Jul 3, 2015

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MAGIC MIKE XXL

DIRECTOR: Gregory Jacobs

CAST: Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez, Jada Pinkett Smith, Amber Heard

CLASSIFICATION: 16L

RUNNING TIME: 112 minutes

RATING: ***

 

 

 

IT’S raining HOT men and money in the sequel to Magic Mike. And they are bumping and grinding to the hearts content of all the ladies who will be making a beeline for the theatre this weekend.

Sadly, Matthew McConaughey didn’t make this movie. But Tatum (Magic Mike, pictured), Bomer (Ken), Manganiello (Big Dick Richie), Rodriguez (Tito), Nash (Tarzan) handle business.

And the Adonis-looking male cast are a visual feast… and then some. They have the perfect abs, six-packs and, let’s just say, you could bounce coins off those behinds.

In case you are wondering why I’m going on about the hotness of the cast, it’s because that’s the selling point of this sequel. It’s a sexually-charged perv fest.

The storyline is as skimpy as the stage outfits of the cast – but the ladies will gladly pardon that shortcoming.

Magic Mike XXL kicks off with the guys reuniting three years later. They have, for old times sake, decided to go to Myrtle Beach for the major stripper convention.

The bonding on the road trip reveals a little about where the guys are in their personal lives. Magic Mike is dealing with a heartbreak after his proposal was turned down. Big Dick Richie hasn’t been having sex because he hasn’t found the one who is the perfect fit for his “glass slipper”.

Along the way, Magic Mike revisits an old acquaintance Rome (Pinkett Smith), who owns her own club, and Zoe (Heard), a girl who piques his interest.

And the guys meet an interesting mix of women, while performing some seriously sexually-charged acts at smaller clubs.

Magic Mike XXL is a fun adult romp. It’s fantastically choreographed, especially the setting of the stage and the build-up to the routines. It seduces the senses and is an indulgently heady mix of music and erotic moves. What’s interesting is that there is no discrimination when it comes to the ladies showcased in the movie – they vary from the Gabourey Sidibe variety to the Plain Janes and, of course, drop-dead-gorgeous beauties.

I have to say Elizabeth Banks brief cameo appearance was a serious déjà vu moment to Pitch Perfect 2. And Andie McDowell as this insanely rich divorced woman getting her cougar on was hilarious.

Magic Mike XXL strokes (um, I mean ticks) all the boxes for female fans. Please don’t ask your guys to go with you, they will ruin it with their constant groaning. And, honestly, the only groaning acceptable are the ones on screen.

If you liked Magic Mike or The Hangover franchise, you should enjoy this.

 

 

 

There was lots of magic behind the scenes too

 

It’s winteR in Savannah, Georgia, but there’s plenty of heat inside the city’s sprawling Convention Centre. Tonight, the space has been transformed into a massive club – with a large main stage and smaller stages lined up in a circle around it. Swirling lights playing across a sea of waving hands and moving bodies on the floor. The club is electric tonight: music is thumping, women are screaming, champagne is being poured. Everyone is having the time of their lives … until it all comes to a halt. The music stops. The lights come up … reality resumes.

This is not really a club, that’s not real champagne, and the crowd is not really here to party. They’re roughly 900 extras called to a movie set, and though they’re on the job, each woman is clearly here to see magic in action – or, more precisely, to see Magic Mike in action.

The spotlight carves out six muscular silhouettes on the main stage. A deafening roar echoes through the crowd and extras or not, these women aren’t faking it.

The six dancers prowl the runway, then – cued by the changing beat – take their moves down to a hypnotic slow-motion gait. When the music cuts out, their bodies freeze like chiselled statues and everyone in the crowd seems to lose their minds.

The vibrant connection between the audience and these performers reveals why the original Magic Mike captured the imaginations of audiences across the globe. It’s hard not to appreciate the heightened costumes, clockwork moves and enter-tainment value of the entire scene. Each take is more dynamic than the next, as the tightly choreographed dance escalates to iconic levels.

An electric energy permeates even the breaks in action – not one of the women filling the massive room seems to ever waver into boredom or distraction. This constant engagement is a tribute to the extras as well as the cast and crew – all working together in perfect harmony as the sequence is repeated again and again. If it feels as exciting and spontaneous as a live event, that’s precisely what the man at the helm is after.

Director Gregory Jacobs is the picture of calm at the centre of the storm. Having cut his teeth working side-by-side with Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and directing two well-regarded indie films, Jacobs is well versed in orchestrating the necessary level of controlled chaos.

Scanning the scene, it’s not hard to spy Soderbergh himself behind the camera. While Jacobs has served as producer and/or first assistant director on nearly 40 of his films, their roles are somewhat reversed on Magic Mike XXL, with Soderbergh serving as director of photography, editor and executive producer for his trusted collaborator.

Jacobs was deeply involved in developing the first Magic Mike with Soderbergh, Channing Tatum and Tatum’s creative partner, screenwriter Reid Carolin, which was inspired by Tatum’s own experiences as a dancer prior to skyrocketing to the A List as an actor.

Once unleashed into theatres, the film became a Hollywood anomaly – a modestly budgeted indie they essentially willed into existence going on to capture the zeitgeist in a huge way.

When its success opened up the possibility of a follow-up, it became obvious to all involved that there would be no holding back this time around.

 

Where the first film was confined to a small glimpse of Mike’s world, Magic Mike XXL takes the show on the road for what Tatum calls a “stripper odyssey” culminating at the convention being filmed in Georgia’s historical port – inspired by a real life road trip the actor himself took. The filmmakers saw the entire experience as an opportunity to showcase the characters who made such an impression the first time around. “I regretted not having more room for the guys in the first film,” Tatum tells us. “They were complete discoveries.”

Now covered in robes, the actors joke on the stage as the crew sets up the next shot. Seeing them together is like watching a gallery of Michelangelo sculptures come to life. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the tourists outside, Tatum is nearby wearing next to nothing and flipping a seated woman on a chair into an at least semi-compromising position. Inside the Convention Centre the crowd eats it up and the entirety of Magic Mike’s onscreen posse watches from off-camera to cheer him on. That’s the camaraderie at play in this effort.

Long after their work is done, the actors stay and hang out, eat together, train together and support each other – partially because it makes them more comfortable, but mostly because it’s just plain fun.

 

Warner Brothers

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