With so much grabbing for your attention and dollars these days, it’s easy to miss when the latest releases are heading to a cinema near you. So come back every week as we here at So, Is It Any Good? preview the big new releases hitting screens.
Up this weekend, the hard bodied hunks of Magic Mike XXL tear up screens across the country and raise the temperature just a little bit…
Magic Mike XXL
Any words seem redundant at this point. You know exactly what you’re getting when you walk into the cinema, and if you’re heading that way, you’re more than likely very excited about it.
I really had no interest in watching the first Magic Mike, even with the Steven Soderbergh factor, and in fact only just watched it this week. I was surprised by the fact that it was very different to how the trailers sold it (bravo Warner Bros marketing peeps!), being more a straightforward drama with a little romance, rather than the debauchery laden thrust-fest that the trailer pitched it as. Not my first choice for movie entertainment, but there are worse ways to spend two hours I guess. So is there still magic left in this Mike?
Three years after Mike bowed out of the stripper life at the top of his game, he and the remaining Kings of Tampa hit the road to Myrtle Beach to put on one last blow-out performance.
By the sounds of things, and from Ben’s review from the premiere (here), the filmmakers have given fans exactly what they were expecting the last time round; very little plot, some male bonding funny stuff, all stuffed with many, many stripping scenes. Ask and they deliver I guess…
The troupe has been brought back together, with main cast members Channing Tatum (also a producer), Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez and Kevin Nash returning for the sequel. Missing this time out is the McConaissance man himself, Matthew McConaughey, who was likely too expensive and too in demand after his Best Actor Oscar win. Joining the fun this go round is a quartet of ladies – Jada Pinkett-Smith as Rome, a club owner in Atlanta, Andie MacDowell as an aging Southern belle, Elisabeth Banks as convention organiser Paris, and Amber Heard takes Cody Horn’s place as the romantic interest, Zoe. Steven Soderbergh has stuck to his self-imposed retirement and just taken cinematography and editing responsibilities on this one, with the director’s chair being filled by his go-to assistant director, Gregory Jacobs.
Here’s the trailer, if you need another hit:
What are you going to see this weekend? Is Mike really magic in your eyes? Hit us up in the comments and let us know what you’ve watched, and if it’s any good!